AUGUST. 141 



Chapter X. August. 



I. 



AUGUST, like February in the Northern Hemisphere, is 

 usually a bleak cold month, with broken weather ; but 

 the days are lengthening, the buds are swelling on the 

 trees, the crocuses make the gardens quite gay in sunshiny 

 hours, and in all bright weather there is a feeling of Spring 

 in the air. The birds are already preparing for the nesting 

 season, and the wanderer in quiet paths coming suddenly 

 on busy blackbirds or thrushes sees many a fight between 

 rival males. It is wonderful with what absolute abandon 

 a couple of blackbirds will fight ; they attack each other 

 with such fierceness and savagery with beak and wings 

 and spurs that they can almost be caught by the hand, so 

 engrossed are they in the scrimmage. I have come upon 

 them while so engaged and marvelled to observe the state 

 of exhaustion which ensues after such a fight, when they 

 sit almost on their tails, facing one another with their 

 golden beaks wide open as if gasping for breath, until the 

 more vigorous suddenly renews the attack. Male thrushes 

 also engage in prolonged fights, but for a regular hammer- 

 and-tongs rough-and-tumble struggle nothing can excel 

 the blackbirds. It beats cock-fighting. After the battle 

 the successful warrior forthwith pairs with the hen of his 

 choice, and his beaten rival looks elsewhere for a mate. 

 The song is suspended until this union is consummated. 

 But out in the open, even early in August, 



" The skylark sings 



High in the blue, with eager outstretched wings, 



Till the strong passion of his joy be told." 



The native birds which have come in near the haunts of 

 men during the earlier months of Winter now mostly seek 

 the denser bush in which to build their nests, only a very 

 few being found within the limits of the Town Belt. One 

 of these, one of the prettiest little birds in New Zealand, is 



