MAESH WAKBLER 



prevented my following their movements. As the light in- 

 creased the excitement dwindled, and both birds gradually 

 lapsed into silence. I then made a search for a female, but 

 without success. That the one male possessed a territory, 

 and made his headquarters in a tall alder tree I proved 

 to my own satisfaction, but on the following morning one 

 male only was singing, there being no trace of the second, 

 and the excitement of the first one was by no means so 

 intense as on the previous day. Owing to this episode occur- 

 ring at the end of a brief stay in the island, I was unable to 

 complete the record of the sexual life of the two males, and in 

 the absence of such a record it will be well, perhaps, to refrain 

 from further speculation. One point, however, may be men- 

 tioned in connection therewith. The plantation was only a 

 short distance away from another of a similar kind in which 

 there were also two occupied territories. The owner of one of 

 these was paired, the nest built, and two eggs laid, but the 

 other male is the one which calls for attention. He had been 

 in the territory a week at least, but not continuously, some- 

 times he was there, sometimes undoubtedly absent ; but his 

 presence always seemed to be a source of irritation to the 

 other male, and generally terminated in a conflict. After one 

 such encounter I noticed that he deserted his territory alto- 

 gether for a time. Now the ground that he occupied did not 

 appear to be altogether suitable for breeding purposes. It 

 embraced a corner only of the plantation, and that corner was 

 covered for the most part with tall trees, beneath which there 

 was little in the way of dense vegetation, small bushes, or 

 withies, in which a nest could be suitably placed. It is pos- 

 sible, therefore, that this bird was the second male referred 

 to as being in the aforesaid plantation, and that being in an 

 unsettled condition on account of not possessing a suitable 

 territory, he was roaming backwards and forwards between 

 the two plantations. An instance of a similar kind has 

 recently come under my notice in the case of another species, 

 the male apparently possessing two territories, in each of which 

 he spent part of his time. 



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