WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 93 



it sinks, becoming in its later stages quite faint, and 

 ending, commonly, in a sort of long - drawn - out, 

 quavering trill which the bird seems to pause upon 

 with pleasure. Holding down its head all the time, 

 it seems to drink in every tittle of the sound, and to 

 strive to give it its full and just expression. So much 

 has it, whilst doing this, the appearance of a musician, 

 and so much does the long, straight, orange bill re- 

 semble a pipe it is playing on, that if fingers were to 

 appear there of a sudden, and begin to 'govern the 

 stops,' one would hardly feel surprise for a moment 

 or two. A point to be noted is that the piping bird 

 is not always turned towards the female he is courting, 

 even when close beside her. He turns towards her, 

 commonly (perhaps always), when he begins, but 

 having once begun, he seems more enthralled by his 

 own music than by her, and will turn from side to 

 side, or even right round and away from her, as 

 though in the rhythmical sway of his piping." 



Here, then, at last, we have upon our own shores, 

 and amongst our own birds, an unmistakable case 

 of a display or performance of a very marked char- 

 acter, in which three birds are present, though one 

 takes only a passive part. The motive power here 

 is obviously sexual ; two males are, at least to all 

 appearance, courting one female. But I made at 

 the time this special observation, that, though the 

 rival birds did, upon two occasions, fly at each other, 

 and though the piping of one always brought the 

 other over to him to pipe in rivalry, yet, when once 

 they began to pipe vigorously, their interest seemed 

 to become centred in, and, as it were, abstracted into 

 this. The actual display, in this case vocal, seemed 



