BRITISH WARBLERS 
During the actual courtship the female, moving quietly 
from place to place, calls loudly and continuously with a very 
plaintive long-drawn note to the male who follows her; off 
and on he darts at her with a very quick flight, resulting in a 
mimic battle, but although the clicking of their bills as they 
meet is plainly audible, yet it is not difficult to see that it is 
all a game, or rather part of the wooing. 
If it is in the tops of the taller trees that he is following 
her, she works her way gradually, as she moves along, lower 
and lower down even on to the ground, where she hops about ; 
but he, while she is here, not being able apparently to carry 
on his courting, moves away in search of food, and this they 
both do for a time contentedly, each in his or her own 
direction. But they do not seem to be able to do without 
one another’s companionship for long, and so perhaps she will 
call to him—a call he very soon answers—or while calmly 
feeding a sudden impulse seizes him, and he darts off headlong 
to find her. This time he may be more active in his court- 
ship, and, following her closely with quivering wings, utters 
a curious buzzing sound; another time he will float towards 
her through the air, like a very big moth, with his wings out- 
stretched and slowly flapping. This is one of the prettiest 
aspects of the courtship, especially when, instead of floating 
straight towards her, he approaches her in semicircles: the 
great beauty of it hes in the way in which he beats the air 
with his wings; this he does so very slowly as to give one 
the impression that he ought not to be moving at all. In 
any attempt, therefore, to portray this, the principal beauty 
is lost. 
In this manner of courting he is not alone, for Blue Tits 
(Parus ceruleus), Hedge-Sparrows (Accentor modularis), and 
Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers (Dendrocopus minor) do the 
same thing. When floating through the air he sometimes 
utters a curious note, but is more frequently silent. Other 
positions assumed during his courtship are also very beautiful, 
the feathers often being raised and fluffed out. One position 
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