78 BIRD WATCHING 



also, perhaps, that it is more easy to look upon 

 them as sudden bursts of excitement — nerve-storms 

 or emotional whirlwinds, so to speak — than as dis- 

 plays intended to attract the attention of the female 

 bird. Certainly there was nothing like a set display 

 of the plumage ; and, with regard to the female, the 

 question arises. Where was she, at least during the 

 greater part of the time? The two male birds in 

 the course of their drama got over a considerable 

 amount of ground, and constantly flew from one part 

 to another, so that, in order to have had anything 

 like a good view, the female must have accompanied 

 them, and I must then, perforce, have seen her, which 

 I did not, except on the occasions related. She was, 

 therefore, not with them, and, if watching them at all, 

 could only have been doing so from such a distance 

 that the dancings of the male birds would have been 

 very much thrown away. Yet that she took some in- 

 terest in what was going on appears likely from her 

 flying up twice into the willow tree during its continu- 

 ance, and being with the two rivals at the end of the 

 day. She might, too, have been listening to the song 

 and observing the flights up into the air, which would 

 have been much more noticeable from a distance. 



One might expect a female bird to take some 

 interest in two male ones fighting for her merely, 

 without any adjunct, and if they added to the fighting 

 peculiar violent movements, such as those here de- 

 scribed, that interest would tend to become increased. 

 Now I can imagine that with this material of violent 

 motions on the one side and some amount of interested 

 curiosity on the other, the former might gradually 

 come to be a display made entirely for the female. 



