THE THRUSH GENUS 361 



being that they had merely changed places without touching one 

 another. At times they would flutter up together a short way from 

 the ground, only to drop again and resume the endless strutting and 

 twittering, the sudden volte-faces and cross-flights, until in the end 

 the lady gathered herself up, and made off for the higher slope, the 

 male in hot pursuit ; and when we last saw them, he was plying her 

 with a torrent of excited twitterings, meant to assure her, no doubt, 

 of his eternal devotion until the autumn equinox, by which time the 

 ring-ouzels have abandoned the domestic state, and packed for 

 migration, leaving the reshuffling of the matrimonial cards until 

 their return in the following spring." l 



The display of the cock blackbird is an equally remarkable 

 performance. Mr. Boraston was fortunate enough to see one 

 crawling slowly through the grass, the body low, the neck and head 

 extended stiffly forward, the long black tail fanned to the full, 

 depressed, trailing, while from the partly opened beak issued a 

 continuous subdued outpouring of ecstatic squeals and pipings. 

 Two hens regarded these preliminaries with interest, as if fascinated. 

 When close in front of them, the cock stopped suddenly, as suddenly 

 drew himself up, flung his tail round to one side, stretched his neck 

 and head away to the other side, and stood thus rigid, as if stuffed, 

 wearing, one may well believe, that look of pathetic imbecility which 

 seems common to the males of all vertebrates, including man, when 

 posing before the other sex ; and which is forgiven them only because, 

 though inartistic, it is an unmistakable manifestation of ardour and 

 devotion. 



The presence of the two hens would have made the subsequent 

 proceedings uncommonly interesting, but one of them happened to 

 have eyes for more than the strange figure before her; she caught 

 sight of the onlooker, and flew off, followed by the second hen, 



1 Birds of Land and Sea, pp. 115-117. The ring-ouzels begin to gather into small flocks in 

 July, gradually descending to the lower grounds as August passes into September, where they 

 sometimes visit the gardens. They finally reach the east coast, and linger till October, or later 

 before actually departing. 



3A 



