DEVIOUS PATHS 



birds could stand the strain no longer, the limit of 

 fair competition had been reached, and seeming to 

 say, &quot; I will silence you, anyhow,&quot; it made a spite 

 ful dive at its rival, and in hot pursuit the two dis 

 appeared in the bushes beneath the tree. Of course 

 I would not say that the birds were consciously 

 striving to outdo each other in song ; it was the old 

 feud between males in the love season, not a war of 

 words or of blows, but of song. Had the birds been 

 birds of brilliant plumage, the rivalry would prob 

 ably have taken the form of strutting and showing 

 off their bright colors and ornaments. 



An English writer on birds, Edmund Selous, de 

 scribes a similar song contest between two night 

 ingales. &quot; Jealousy,&quot; he says, &quot; did not seem to blind 

 them to the merit of each other s performance. 

 Though often one, upon hearing the sweet, hostile 

 strains, would burst forth instantly itself, and 

 here there was no certain mark of appreciation, 

 yet sometimes, perhaps quite as often, it would 

 put its head on one side and listen with exactly the 

 appearance of a musical connoisseur, weighing, 

 testing, and appraising each note as it issued from 

 the rival bill. A curious, half-suppressed expression 

 would steal, or seem to steal (for Fancy may play 

 her part in such matters), over the listening bird, 

 and the idea appear to be, How exquisite would be 



those strains were they not sung by , and yet 



I must admit that they are exquisite. 5 &quot; Fancy no 

 115 



