184 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



there were numbers of them, and dancing of a more pronounced, 

 or at least of a more violent kind than I had yet seen, com- 

 menced. Otherwise it was quite the same, but the extra degree 

 of excitement made it, of course, much more interesting. It 

 was, in fact, remarkable and extraordinary. Running forward 

 with wings extended and slightly raised, a bird would suddenly 

 fling them high up, and then, as it were, "pitch" about over 

 the ground, waving and tossing them, stopping short, turning, 

 pitching forward again, leaping into the air, descending and con- 

 tinuing, till with another leap it would make a short eccentric 

 flight low over the ground, and pitch suddenly down in a sharp 

 curve. I talk of their "pitching" about because their move- 

 ments seemed at times hardly under control, and each violent 

 run or plunge ending, in fact, with a sudden pitch forward of the 

 body, the wings straggling about (often pointed forward over the 

 head) in an uncouth dislocated sort of way, the effect was as if 

 the birds were being blown about over the ground in a violent 

 wind.* They seemed, in fact, to be crazy, and their sudden and 

 abrupt return, after a few mad moments, to propriety and decorum 

 had a curious and "bizarre" effect. Though having just seen 

 them behave so, one seemed almost to doubt that they had. One 

 bird in particular that had come to within a moderate distance of 

 me made itself conspicuous in the way I have tried to describe. 

 It was one of some half a dozen gathered together under a 

 solitary crab-apple tree almost directly opposite me, and both 

 with the naked eye and the glasses I observed them all thoroughly 

 well. One would often run at or pursue another with these 

 antics. I saw one that was standing quietly caught, and, as it 

 were, covered up in a little storm of wings before it could run 

 away and begin waving its own. These little chases were evi- 

 dently in sport, not anger. Very different was the action and 

 demeanour of the two birds I saw about to fight. This and the 

 general behaviour of the group made it evident that they were 

 stimulated in their dance-antics by each other's presence. This 

 is by far the finest display of the sort that I have yet seen, and 

 must certainly be due to the rain, which the birds obviously 

 enjoyed. They had been quite dull and listless before, but as 



* There was little or no wind after the rain commenced, nor has this 

 explanation been tenable as yet even in the smallest degree. 



