BRITISH WARBLERS 



more serious side of life, each in its own particular way; 

 and there is no reason to suppose that this trait is absent 

 from bird life. But it is by no means probable that the 

 petty struggles, rapid pursuits, or harsh scoldiugs, which are 

 of common occurrence in the life of this species, can all be 

 referred to this cause, or that they have one and the same 

 origin. On the one hand we have scolding parties, very 

 similar to those we find in the life-history of the Sedge 

 Warbler. As many as six individuals, apparently belonging 

 to both sexes, collect in a small area, some at the tops of 

 the reeds and some at the bottom, and produce a considerable 

 commotion by uttering their harsh scolding note. On the 

 other we frequently find a number of individuals pursuing 

 one another, darting in and out of the reeds, momentarily 

 appearing as they fly above the tops, but rapidly disappearing 

 again from view, pecking at and fluttering with each other 

 in the air or amongst the reeds when the unusual shaking 

 of the stems discloses their exact position ; and yet again 

 we find two or more close together bursting into song and 

 uttering their notes more hurriedly and more excitedly than 

 under ordinary conditions. 



As already mentioned, the date of arrival of different 

 individuals varies considerably. The case may be remem- 

 bered of the two males which appeared within a few days 

 of one another ; the one secured a mate only upon the day 

 on which its neighbour's young were preparing to leave 

 the nest. Thus it will be seen that in the same reed bed 

 and at the same time, reproduction may exist in all its 

 different stages. In one territory a male may be mating, 

 in another a pair may be busy with incubation, while in 

 another the young may be on the point of leaving the nest. 

 So that we have in this fact a possible explanation of much 

 of the excitable behaviour of different individuals ; for the 

 question of territory is not comparatively absent, as it would 

 be if the young of all the different pairs were ready to leave 

 the nest, but, rather, a prominent cause of strife even up to 



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