134 IN PAIRING TIME 



Plover kinds, birds generally of marked character 

 and intelligence. Therefore, the courtship of the 

 Song-thrush is perhaps not strangely, but normally, 

 unimaginative. 



Before the end of a not too severe January Robins 

 will be back in their old nesting places. Pairing in 

 those spacious days seems to pass off more quietly 

 than when, during March, the number of these birds 

 is increased by the influx of strangers from without. 

 It may be that, among the home birds, old associa- 

 tions are renewed in those quiet days undisturbed by 

 the rout of new-comers who, later, bring greater 

 contention with a wider choice. 



In the third week of March I came upon no fewer 

 than five Robins in a corner of a field four cocks 

 and one female, the latter standing demurely at the 

 foot of the hedgerow with a Heaven-help-us expres- 

 sion in its attitude. Three of the cocks perched on 

 twigs projecting from the hedge, and the fourth upon 

 the top of an old gate stump, everyone of them with 

 its tail erected at right angles to the axis of its body. 

 The one upon the post, being free to move, hopped 

 with stifBy set legs about the narrow area at 

 command, before flitting to the ground to resume his 

 antics immediately before the hen bird. But this 

 was more than the others could stomach, so that, 

 launching themselves upon him, they entered into a 

 general scuffle, in which it was no longer possible to 

 discriminate attacker from attacked. A moment later, 

 all were up on the hedge, darting at and putting up 

 one another, so that all retreated like a company of 

 flitting tits along the hedge-top in what was at once 

 a running pursuit and retreat. In the meanwhile 



