362 THE THRUSH FAMILY 



and also by the cock as soon as he had collapsed into his normal 

 attitude. 1 



That in this display the cock should fling his head to one side 

 and his tail to the other might be explained by his desire to show off 

 the magnificence of the latter, but why did he not fling it up, erect, 

 as is his frequent habit, when alighting ? Perhaps he felt that 

 the occasion merited something more original. A still more original 

 feature of his display, absent from the one just described, is the 

 erection of the upper tail-coverts, which are made to stand up almost 

 like a small forest of bristles on the lower part of the back. This was 

 witnessed by Mr. Seaby in the case of a cock engaged in running on 

 the ground towards a hen in an attitude similar to that of the bird 

 observed by Mr. Boraston ; and again by myself in the case of another 

 cock who alighted on a wall, by himself, and ran along it with the tail 

 slightly spread and depressed, but in an evident state of excitement. 

 There was no hen nearer than forty yards. 



These displays are, of course, not confined to the period of 

 courtship ; for the emotional state that gives rise to them continues 

 to reassert itself after mating. In the early hours of an April morning 

 I have seen a cock blackbird uttering his familiar mink ! mink ! but 

 in soft and chastened tones, and at intervals fanning and trailing 

 his tail, all in a vain effort to win some sympathy from his mate. 

 She, being more profitably engaged in winning the bashful worm, 

 suddenly lost patience, and drove him from her sight. 



The mistle-thrush and song-thrush have no doubt a courtship 

 display, but no account of it has yet been published. Beyond the 

 fact that the cock thrush has been seen to puff out his feathers when 

 stirred by love, all that can with any certainty at present be said is that 

 couples of either species may be seen early in the year, often in some 

 wide field, tacking hither and thither, displaying at every halt the 

 spotted splendour of their breasts, a protracted and somewhat weari- 

 some performance, unless enlivened by the advent of a rival male, 



1 Nature Tones and Undertones, p. 131. 



