i io BIRD WATCHING 



There was no other bird very near to these two 

 gulls during all the long time that they fought, no 

 female who was obviously the cause of the affair, 

 and to whom either of them went, or showed a desire 

 to go, either in the interval between the two combats 

 or at the end of it all. Yet that the two were rival 

 males seems hardly to be doubted, taking the season 

 into consideration. This and the same observation 

 applies to the two wheatears who fought for hours 

 without the female being at all en evidence seems 

 to show a power of retaining a vivid mental impres- 

 sion of the loved or coveted bird in her absence, to 

 which is added a tranquil pleasure of the paired birds 

 in each other's society apart from mere sensual grati- 

 fication. It is absurd, therefore, to keep the word 

 "love" to ourselves, as we do in the spirit if not the 

 letter. As in other things, there is no line drawn 

 here in nature, and it is in watching animals that 

 one gets to know the real meaning of all our high 

 terminology. It is wonderful how long two birds 

 who have chosen each other will stand quite motion- 

 less close together, as though they were a couple of 

 stones, and then show by some mutual or dependent 

 action that each is in the other's mind. Here is an 

 instance. " A pair of herring-gulls have been standing 

 for a long time one just behind the other on the edge 

 of the grassy slope of the cliff, quite motionless, 

 looking like the painted wooden birds of a Noah's 

 ark. All at once both, as in obedience to a common 

 impulse, burst into wild clamorous cries for a few 

 seconds and then fly out over the sea. Quite soon 

 they return and, settling again in precisely the same 

 spot and relative position, stand motionless as before, 



