CHAPTER IV 



Watching Wheateafs, Dabchicks, Oystef- 

 catchers, etc. 



The wheatear is common over the warren-lands, and 

 as I have been so fortunate as to witness for a whole 

 afternoon, and very closely, a series of combined dis- 

 plays and combats on the part of two rival males, 

 which struck me as very interesting, and as bearing 

 on the question of sexual selection, I will give the 

 account in extenso, as I noted it down from point 

 to point between the intervals of following the birds 

 about on my hands and knees. Should the narrative 

 be tedious — and it is, I confess, somewhat minute — I 

 need not ask my readers to absolve nature and give 

 me the blame of it, for I am assured that anyone in 

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