DEVIOUS PATHS 
birds could stand the strain no longer, the limit of 
fair competition had been reached, and seeming to 
say, “I will silence you, anyhow,” it made a spite- 
ful dive at its rival, and in hot pursuit the two dis- 
appeared in the bushes beneath the tree. Of course 
I would not say that the birds were consciously 
striving to outdo each other in song ; it was the old 
feud between males in the love season, not a war of 
words or of blows, but of song. Had the birds been 
birds of brilliant plumage, the rivalry would prob- 
ably have taken the form of strutting and showing 
off their bright colors and ornaments. 
An English writer on birds, Edmund Selous, de- 
scribes a similar song contest between two night- 
ingales. “ Jealousy,” he says, “did not seem to blind 
them to the merit of each other’s performance. 
Though often one, upon hearing the sweet, hostile 
strains, would burst forth instantly itself, — and 
here there was no certain mark of appreciation, 
— yet sometimes, perhaps quite as often, it would 
put its head on one side and listen with exactly the 
appearance of a musical connoisseur, weighing, 
testing, and appraising each note as it issued from 
the rival bill. A curious, half-suppressed expression 
would steal, or seem to steal (for Fancy may play 
her part in such matters), over the listening bird, 
and the idea appear to be, ‘ How exquisite would be 
those strains were they not sung by , and yet 
I must admit that they are exquisite.’” Fancy no 
115 
