CHAPTER. “¥: 
Courtship Flights 
A pair of falcons wheeling on the wing, 
In clamourous agitation . . .’’—Wordsworth. 
The wing-play of black-game and grouse—The “‘ musical ride’”’ of the snipe— 
The ‘‘roding’’ of the woodcock—The musical flights of redshank and curlew— 
The “‘tumbling’”’ of the lapwing—The raven’s somersaults The courting flight 
of the wood pigeon—The mannikins “‘castanets ’’—Wings as lures—The strange pose 
of the sun-bittern—The “‘ wooing ’’ of the chaffinch and the grasshopper-warbler— 
Darwin and wing-displays—The wonderful wings of the argus-pheasant. 
NE of the most striking features of bird-life is surely 
().. restless activity. This is always apparent, but it 
attains to a state of almost feverish excitement as the spring 
advances, and the parental instincts re-awaken. As they 
gather strength, so they manifest themselves, in outbursts of 
song—often of exquisite beauty—strange antics, or wonderful 
evolutions in mid-air. 
It is with these last that we are chiefly concerned here. As 
might be supposed, they present a wide variety in the matter of 
their form and duration. Black-game furnish an example of a 
very simple form of courtship flight, but it is associated with 
curious antics on the ground. And these, it is to be noted, are 
only to be witnessed soon after sunrise. Two blackcocks will 
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