48 BIRD COURTSHIP 



hasty peep into the hole in the box or tree and then 

 fly away, uttering a lonesome, homesick note. Only 

 by a wooing of many days is she to be fully won. 



The past April I was witness one Sunday morning 

 to the jealousies that may rage in these little brown 

 breasts. A pair of bluebirds had apparently mated 

 and decided to occupy a woodpecker's lodge in the 

 limb of an old apple-tree near my study. But that 

 morning another male appeared on the scene, and 

 was bent on cutting the first male out, and carry- 

 ing off his bride. I happened to be near by when 

 the two birds came into collision. They fell to the 

 grass, and kept their grip upon each other for half 

 a minute. Then they separated, and the first up flew 

 to the hole and called fondly to the female. This 

 was too much for the other male, and they clinched 

 again and fell to the ground as before. There they 

 lay upon the grass, blue and brown intermingled. 

 But not a feather was tweaked out, or even disturbed, 

 that I could see. They simply held each other down. 

 Then they separated again, and again rushed upon 

 each other. The battle raged for about fifteen min- 

 utes, when one of the males — which one, of course, 

 I could not tell — withdrew and flew r to a box under 

 the eaves of the study, and exerted all the eloquence 

 he possessed to induce the female to come to him 

 there. How he warbled and called, and lifted his 

 wings and flew to the entrance to the box and called 

 again! The female was evidently strongly attracted; 



