SEXUAL SELECTION IN BIRDS. 175 



of the following nature, and constitute the second of the three 

 principal causes which lead, or may lead, to strife. Every now 

 and again, for no discoverable reason, a little emotional tempest 

 of a warlike character seems to sweep through the assembly, or 

 a portion of it. The birds who come under its influence awake 

 suddenly, as it were, from repose or a reposeful attitude of mind, 

 crouch, ruffle their feathers, give a turn or two about, or from 

 side to side, and assume the fighting attitude (distinct from the 

 crouching or prostrate one which I have mentioned) towards one 

 or other of their neighbours. Then, on the part of a pair or so, 

 there is some springing and fighting, but it quiets down almost 

 before it has well begun, and, in a few seconds, everything is 

 quiet again. What exactly the birds feel on these occasions is 

 difficult to say. It may best be thought of, perhaps, as a sort of 

 sociable and light-hearted hostility, or perhaps it is individual 

 hostility breaking out of collective sociability, and guided merely 

 by proximity — for I have seen but little sign amongst Buffs of 

 enduring personal enmities, spite, or petty persecution. It is 

 more like a convivial, though rather sleepy, assembly of jack- 

 tars, all very friendly, but any two ready to stand up and spar 

 at any moment. Imagine such an assembly, and a sudden 

 passing idea of sparring sweeping at intervals through it, in a 

 gust here or there, and one gets something I do not say like what 

 these Buff-meetings are, but like the idea that they give one. 

 The third cause of fighting — of which, perhaps, the little ebulli- 

 tions referred to are a sort of memory — is, of course, the presence 

 of the Beeve, and the more the merrier in this respect. Till 

 latterly, however, this has not produced nearly so much com- 

 bativeness, or, at any rate, not nearly so many prolonged duels, 

 as I was prepared to expect— but now I have seen some. Several 

 times yesterday, for instance — I have only time, now, to get it 

 in — two birds fought with the most tremendous fury and energy 

 for perhaps two or three minutes at a time ; but whether the 

 watch would have made it as long as this I am doubtful. At any 

 rate, it was, I am sure, upon each occasion well under five 

 minutes. As fighting, however, I have never yet seen the like. 

 The birds literally hurled themselves at each other, biting and 

 kicking with the greatest imaginable fury, and striking showers 

 of blows with their wings, the noise of which was like so many 



