BRITISH WARBLERS 



under stress of intense excitement, a low, lengthened kind 

 of whining, very plaintive, resembling in some measure the 

 word pheu, but they sometimes make a curious gurgling 

 sound, which seems to be produced low down in the throat. 

 But it is not only when two males happen to have settled in 

 the same locality on the same morning that these fights take 

 place. I remember one case in which a male, having arrived 

 some days previously, was even engaged in courting a female, 

 when another male, undoubtedly a new arrival, appeared on 

 the scene, and a severe struggle ensued. The new-comer w r as 

 immediately attacked and flew away pursued by the owner. 

 The flight of both males was slow, and in the course of it 

 they circled in and out of the trees, so that they kept return- 

 ing to where I was standing, and I was thus enabled to 

 witness a great part of the contest. The intruder would 

 settle, and the owner would immediately do the same quite 

 close to him, never for a moment leaving him alone, but 

 compelling him, by incessant attacks, to move from place to 

 place. In this way the fight actively proceeded for a con- 

 siderable time, the intruder sometimes retaliating, which 

 resulted in a fierce struggle, both birds falling to the ground 

 locked together, where they would remain fluttering and 

 rolling about. During the pauses in the contest both males 

 sang, but the intruder's song was neither so loud nor so 

 vigorous as his opponent's. The female did not follow the 

 combatants, and the owner, who had previously been courting 

 her, seemed to neglect her during the struggle. As far as I 

 was enabled to judge, she remained an uninterested spectator 

 at the opposite end of the territory, though when the fight 

 was over I saw her again close to the' owmer. The males,- 

 on the first morning after their arrival, are not always antagon- 

 istic, for I have seen two, which had only just arrived, 

 evidently on the most friendly terms, following one another 

 and feeding within a few feet on the same branches, one of 

 them, apparently the leader, frequently singing, the other 

 following in his wake. 



