LAPWINGS IN THE PAIRING SEASON. 299 



cessantly occurring at all hours of the day, and have at first 

 sight the appearance of genuine rivalry. Despite the occasional 

 blows given and received, however, it is doubtful how far such 

 tussles are to be regarded as real struggles for mastership or for 

 breeding ground. There is frequently about them an aspect 

 more suggestive of play, and the fact that they persist in un- 

 lessened frequency throughout the pairing season and long after 

 the eggs are laid is in favour of this interpretation. More 

 realistic and suggestive of veritable antagonism are the occa- 

 sional ground combats, less common than the aerial perform- 

 ances, but still not infrequent in the early part of the season. 

 Usually one bird is here the aggressor, swooping repeatedly 

 from one side or the other at its rival on the ground, or dropping 

 on it from above like a hawk. The threatened bird twirls round 

 each time to face the onset of the other, evading the blow by 

 swerving aside or by little upward springs into the air. At 

 length, bullied into flight, it rises and attacks in turn, or indulges 

 in prolonged song-flight to a distant part of the field. Should 

 it return and settle once more on the same ground the attack by 

 the other bird is immediately renewed. Such struggles as this 

 are at times most obstinately persisted in by the two birds — 

 sometimes for as long a period as an hour or an hour and a half 

 on end. So engrossed are they with each other that I have 

 known them ignore the courting of a female on the disputed 

 ground by a third male. 



When not engaged in these frequent aerial exercises, the 

 males go through certain peculiar movements on the ground, 

 not a little puzzling to the observer. Standing upright in his 

 chosen area, a bird utters a strange grating note, usually harsh 

 in tone, but varying at times to a more plaintive pitch ; mean- 

 while the tail and wings are swayed up and down in a rhythmical 

 manner. This movement may be continued without further 

 development for a considerable period, but on any stimulus, 

 such as the passing overhead of a female — or even without 

 extraneous cause — the male drops to the ground, and, lying far 

 forward on his breast, shuffles the body and scrapes energeti- 

 cally with the feet, which, if sufficiently near the observer, may 

 be seen in rapid motion. At short intervals the tail is spasmodi- 

 cally bent downwards, the action corresponding with energetic 



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