CHAPTER V 



Courtship Flights 



" A pair of falcons wheeling on the wing, 

 In clamorous agitation . . ." 



Wordsworth. 



The wing-play of blackgame and grouse — ^The " musical ride " of the snipe — 

 The " reding " of the woodcock — ^The musical flights of redshank and curlew — 

 The " tumbling " of the lapwing — ^The raven's somersaults — The courting flight 

 of the wood-pigeon — The manakin's " castanets " — Wings as lures — ^The strange 

 pose of the sun-bittern— The " wooing " of the chaffinch and the grasshopper- 

 warbler — Darwin and wing-displays — The wonderful wings of the argus 

 pheasant. 



ONE of the most striking features of bird-life is surely 

 its restless activity. This is always apparent, but it 

 attains to a state of almost feverish excitement as the spring 

 advances, and the parental instincts re-awaken. As they 

 gather strength, so they manifest themselves, in outbursts of 

 song — often of exquisite beauty — strange antics, or wonderful 

 evolutions in mid-air. 



It is with these last that we are chiefly concerned here. 

 As might be supposed, they present a wide variety in the 

 matter of their form and duration. Blackgame furnish an 

 example of a very simple form of courtship flight, but it is 

 associated with curious antics on the ground. And these. 



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