36 



THE NIDIOLOGIST 



, Aerial Duels. 



WHICH, in its respective sphere, may 

 be considered the champion duelist 

 among the birds ? 



For some years after commencing the study 

 of Ornithology, the Kingbird seemed to me to 

 be the ne plus ultra in this respect, the Red- 

 winged Blackbird, however, giving him a close 

 race for first honors. The former is undoubt- 

 edly a bully, for I have seen him attack and 

 knock to the ground Robins and other birds, 

 while the Red-wing is seldom or never known 

 to attack any bird that is not several times 

 larger than himself. (Rumors have been spread 

 which lay the crime of egg eating at Red-wing's 

 door, but I doubt if much definite proof can be 

 given.) 



Of course, we have all seen innumerable en- 

 counters between Kingbirds or Red-winged 

 Blackbirds and Crows or Hawks, but it is 

 seldom that the smaller birds unite to indulge 

 the more brutal tastes in one's nature, unless in 

 occasional disputes in the vicinity of their nests. 

 In none of the cases given below could nesting 

 have had the least influence. 



The first, and almost the most interesting, 

 came to my notice while driving to the station 

 one morning. A Tree Swallow was sitting plum- 

 ing himself on a telegraph wire, when suddenly, 

 and without any apparent cause, a Kingbird 

 made a vicious onslaught upon him. Much to 

 my surprise, the Swallow rose and had Tyrannus 

 in the middle of the road before he fully realized 

 that he had "caught a Tartar." Seldom have 

 I seen such grace and quickness of motion as 

 the righteously angry Swallow showed in his at- 

 tack, which was continuous and from above, not 

 a foot from his opponent at any time, and last- 

 ing no longer than a quarter of a minute. This 

 put the Kingbird into second place. 



The next instance was one with which, I 

 imagine, few of us have been favored. It was 

 merely a skirmish, lasting perhaps a minute, but 

 some idea of its beauty may be given when I 

 say that the two contestants were males of Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak and Scarlet Tanager. It 

 occurred directly over my head in an apple tree 

 that grew alone in a large tract of alders, the 

 Tanager taking the offensive and easily out- 

 pointing, with his rapier-like bill, his bluff, 

 though strongly-beaked opponent. The bril- 

 liant flashes of color, with the green leaves for 

 a background, can more easily be imagined than 

 described. 



I will now quote a few details from my 

 brother's (C. W. Bowles) notebook on this sub- 

 ject: "The English Sparrows seem to have a 

 sort of Ku Klu.x Klan among themselves, and 

 when a bird comes along that they cannot drive 



away by fighting they seem to appoint several 

 of their number to gain their point by con- 

 tinual pestering. As an example, I once saw 

 in the Public Gardens of Boston, Mass. (a per- 

 fect hotbed of the English Sparrow disease), a 

 Tree Swallow on an electric light wire, with an 

 adult male English Sparrow on each side. Both 

 leaned toward the Swallow and squawked for 

 all they were worth, but neither dared to attack 

 him, so I left them hard at it with several other 

 Sparrows as interested spectators. 



" One morning in York, Me., while trying to 

 identify a small bird, I was disturbed by the 

 excited chattering of a Barn Swallow overhead. 

 The cause was a Sharp-shinned Hawk ( $ ), 

 which had probably attacked it and thus made 

 it extremely angry. It did not try to avoid an 

 attack by keeping above, but stayed a compara- 

 tively short distance below and always to one 

 side, circling swiftly around so that the two 

 were always in the same relative position, the 

 Hawk never squarely facing the Swallow. The 

 former turned around several times; twice she 

 started to leave, but each time the Swallow rose 

 above and flew toward her, darting like light- 

 ning to its original position when the Hawk 

 turned. The third time Accipiter started off, 

 the Swallow rose and flew, with a rather con- 

 strained motion, straight at her back, apparently 

 striking it, for A. velox made a sort of jerk, as 

 a Crow does when a Kingbird is about to strike 

 — it is probably an attempt to dodge. This 

 time the Hawk was quite satisfied, so promptly 

 left the field of action, while the Swallow 

 mounted high into the air and then returned 

 to the barn, apparently considerably exhausted." 



That the English Sparrow sometimes meets 

 with a disappointment, if only occasionally, was 

 proven to me when a male of that species at- 

 tempted to rob a Chipping Sparrow of some 

 dainty morsel that it was discussing. It must 

 have been something particularly good, for 

 " Chippy " turned on the bully with such vigor 

 that, after a short exchange of blows, P. do- 

 mesticus was obliged to seek the seclusion that 

 an electric light globe grants, hotly pursued by 

 S. socialis. 



I will conclude by describing an entirely un- 

 provoked attack made by a Barn Swallow upon 

 a Belted Kingfisher. The latter started to fly 

 across a small ]iond (perhaps a third of a mile 

 wide), when the former left its useful occupation 

 of entomological collecting, and with a single 

 blow knocked the belted knight prone upon the 

 water. I was fishing at the time, but drew in 

 my line so that the none too plentiful fish should 

 iiot seize the opportunity in order to distract 

 my attention from such an interesting encoun- 

 ter. The Swallow was a picture of innocence, 

 flying about industriously feeding, until the 



