HONEYSUCKERS AND TAILOR-BIRDS 131 



when they have nothing else to do they constantly 

 turn their heads about from side to side and twitch 

 and flutter their little wings in aimless activity. 

 Their perpetual nervous excitement makes them 

 very pugnacious, and fierce encounters are sure to 

 take place wherever many of them happen to be 

 congregated. They are also very ready to assert 

 themselves in attacks on other kinds of birds, even 

 when prudence would seem to counsel forbearance. 

 One that for a long time inhabited an aviary 

 containing a very miscellaneous collection of birds 

 was a regular pocket-tyrant, and was never tired 

 of bullying any of his fellow-prisoners to whom 

 he had taken objection. One of the objects of his 

 special dislike was a purple honeysucker, who was 

 not at all averse to a fray, but who generally came 

 off second best. Quarrels w r ere generally begun 

 by the yellow bird approaching his purple enemy, 

 singing at him insultingly, and performing a series 

 of offensive gestures, nodding, bowing, and jerking 

 his head from side to side, whilst his foe only scolded 

 feebly and raised and fluttered his wings so as to 

 show the splendid orange and scarlet of the axillary 

 tufts (Plate VIII.). Both birds having done their best 

 to display their ornaments to the utmost advantage, 

 a brief tussle would take place, and end in their both 

 falling to the ground, the yellow warrior generally 

 being uppermost and ready to fly off and chant 

 a song of triumph from one of the neighbouring 



