WHITETHROATS, BLACKCAP, GARDEN-WARBLER 35 



into the air and descend witli outspread wings and tail, and occa- 

 sionally pursue the female with faint cries ; but she, as a rule, goes 

 stolidly on with whatever interests her at the moment, now and again 

 responding with a curious cry, as if impatient of all this fuss. When 

 these methods fail the males change their tactics cease showing off, 

 and commence wooing with love-songs. Sometimes two will vie with 

 each other; and often this singing is more effective than all the 

 previous display, for the lady wooed generally goes off with one or 

 the other, while the defeated bird takes his rebuff philosophically 

 unless slain by his rival and goes swashbuckling elsewhere. 



The excitable whitethroat adds to his performance a curious 

 aerial dance which can frequently be witnessed during the early part 

 of May. He will hurl himself into the air hence, perhaps, his local 

 name of " singing sky-rocket " where he remains, poised like a hawk, 

 for some seconds ; then descends a little way, rising again and again, 

 then drops like a stone, only apparently to rebound still higher. I 

 have watched this beautiful performance for whole mornings on the 

 great wide Norfolk marshes, where only a few tall trees intercept one's 

 view of the passionate whitethroat's wooing. 



The lesser-whitethroat confines his love-making to more secluded 

 places, but he is equally persistent in a quiet way. The garden-warbler 

 seems less excitable than either the whitethroat or the black-cap ; 

 but, like the others of the group, it puffs out cheeks and throat and 

 displays its wings and tail. This bird is less pugnacious than the black- 

 cap, which may perhaps account for the fact that it seldom frequents 

 the same localities as its rival. All four have a habit of picking up and 

 carrying to the female a bit of dead grass, as if to show her that their 

 intentions are serious and honourable. 



This business of courtship happily settled, the pairs soon turn 

 their attention to housekeeping. All four species are very similar in 

 their nesting habits, yet each has its own little individual peculiarities. 

 The male whitethroat, for instance, is particularly fussy, rushing here 

 and there in an excited state, and beginning various nests on his own 



