14 Union Bay 



Every authority I read had agreed on the importance 

 which song played in the maintenance of territorial rights. 

 Most of them thought that it has two purposes— one to an- 

 nounce occupancy and to warn off competing males and the 

 other to inform the females of the presence of a lone bachelor. 



As if to prove it a song ceased and one of the little five- 

 inch birds dashed toward the invisible boundaries of no 

 man's land— the other had advanced into disputed territory. 

 The attack was straight and vicious. The birds squeaked; 

 they mixed in a moment of savage battle; a soft feather 

 drifted away as they rolled and dropped in fierce grip; the 

 battlers disengaged and the victor pursued the vanquished 

 for a few yards. A moment's quiet followed, then both birds 

 sang, as if to indicate that, while there was to be no non- 

 sense about invasion, resentment ceased after the rules were 

 observed. Time and time again I watched the same little 

 drama. Every struggle ended with the repulse of the invad- 

 ing bird. But if the victor went too far in its pursuit and 

 entered the other bird's territory, then the pursued, as if 

 convinced of the justice of its position, would turn on the 

 erstwhile pursuer and drive it back into its own domain. I 

 thought that it demonstrated the strength that comes from 

 faith in one's cause, for I never saw an invaded bird lose its 



fight. 



The singing persisted, the birds watched each other from 

 opposite sides of the pool, and continued to defend their 

 location, with constant pugnacity. The days grew longer, the 

 water level lowered a little, the green of that aquatic plant— 

 the mare's-tail— appeared and was followed by the shoots of 

 cattails and the branching loosestrife. The reflections in the 

 still waters had been brown all winter but now they were 

 bright with the blue of the skies, the whites of the clouds, 

 and the greens of the rapidly growing vegetation. Nest build- 

 ing went on, for the females had drifted into the marsh and 

 the birds had begun to mate. I watched the nests appear all 





