Concord, Mass.
1907.
April 9
(No 7)
  The Fox Sparrows at the seed beds were
"scrapping" almost incessantly when collected
there in large numbers. Their encounters, although often
spirited were invariably brief and seldom or never really
vindictive. Apparently they expressed only momentary and
for the most part trivial fits of jealousy or ill-temper.
At first I thought that they were caused by a selfish
determination to monopolise spots where food was particularly
abundant but I soon found that even the most
quarrelsome birds molested only certain individuals of their
own kind and that it was very unusual (I saw it
happen but twice during the day) for any of them to
attack the much smaller and feebler Juncos which were
always feeding with them and which, had they chosen,
they could easily have excluded from the feast. My
final conclusion was that most of their combats
were due either to sexual jealousy or to a mixture
of playfulness and bravado. In other words they
were simply bullying one another and "showing off,"
perhaps for the benefit of their mates. I noted some
evidence, however, which indicated that certain birds
were unpopular with their fellows if not very generally
disliked by them. Such individuals, at least, were
obviously and repeatedly ill treated by more than one
of their companions and one unfortunately was
invariably set upon by three or four of them at once whenever
it attempted to approach the seed bed.
Fox Sparrows fighting
  Most of the fights that I watched were simple
duels, however, quickly ended and not again resumed
so far as I could discern. Indeed it was very
common for two birds to be feeding quietly side by