176 THE BUNTINGS 



space (which looks better), he will fly, on a sudden, with dangling legs 

 and feathers still out-ruffled. To such a post as this, however, he 

 will generally return, especially if the nearest one like it is in 

 possession of another male corn-bunting, who sits there with rival 

 song and rival actions. In this case, the two will often meet in mid- 

 space, and after darting at, and waltzing about one another, in a sort 

 of clumsy, half make-believe fight, fly back, each to his respective 

 solitude, where they continue to sit, sing and attitudinise, the only 

 two visible living points on that bare, wind-swept, peasant-cleared 

 space. This they will do, time after time, at long, cold, desolate 

 intervals, nor have I ever seen anything in which life was, that has more 

 emphasised the general lifelessness, or made loneliness lonelier. At 

 such times one may love the song of the corn-bunting. If, then, the 

 male corn-bunting has really no courting actions, he has, at any rate, 

 something which might easily, some day, become such the raw 

 material as I have called it but perhaps, in view of the above, it 

 would be premature to assume that he has not. If his song can 

 attract the attention of the female, there seems no good reason why 

 his gestures should not, also. 



Nor is this the end of the matter, for, as is the case with many 

 birds, some of the corn-bunting's habits, in other countries, seem to 

 be different, or, at any rate, more pronounced, and therefore more 

 interesting, than they are here probably on account of its numbers 

 being there greater. Thus, in Savoy we are told that, on a fine day in 

 March, all the corn-buntings of the district are accustomed to rendez- 

 vous on some slight elevation in the midst of a wide, open space, and 

 that here various males, rising only a little into the air, will circle or 

 half-circle about the females, on trembling wings and with their legs 

 hanging down. This lasts but for a short time, when they descend 

 slowly, in a lark-like manner, and there is then a pause or entre-acte, 

 at the end of which the males rise and circle again, this time for a 

 longer period, encouraged in their gallantries by the growing interest 

 of the females, who, with soft cries and gently vibrating wings, applaud 



