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The Irish Naturalist. 



October, 



to me to be confined to their territories by any means, 

 but to vary their search without any distinct opposition 

 except from a mateless bird as above. An extraordinar}' 

 onset could suddenly be observed on food which appeared 

 connected with the beech buds just bursting into leaf. 

 This was on the 29th April. Tree feeding before that was 

 not pronounced. This was just a day or two before the 

 hatching of the earliest young and it seemed as if the 

 incubation were arranged just in time for this food. By 

 the 22nd May ground feeding had displaced the former, 

 but by this date the normal nests would have the young 

 fledged. 



The courtship of the Chaffinch generally takes the form 

 of the male doggedly following the female from branch to 

 branch and then an occasional flight when they click bill 

 to bill. Mr. Howard has fully described courtship. 



Blackbird. — A few Blackbirds appear to be paired 

 and others courting for several weeks before song begins. 

 I have some reason from three or four cases to think that 

 those very early pairs do not join in the subsequent song. 

 The earliest song is in the third or fourth week of February. 

 Song implies perching up, more or less in the open, contrary 

 to the usual habits of the bird. The well-known noisy calls 

 in the winter dusk, as the birds proceed to favourite roosting 

 colonies, diminish at the commencement of song. Fewer 

 birds congregate, that is to say, they are beginning to 

 roost in their own territories. At any time in the season 

 the amount of Blackbird song between an hour after sunrise 

 and an hour before sunset seems never more than trifling. 

 The really great chorus is always confined to 10 or 15 

 minutes in the dark dusk of morning and evening. And 

 it is not until April that earlier evening song becomes 

 noticeable, that is about an hour before sunset. Those 

 few birds which are heard in any degree during the day 

 appear to be either birds which are a long time getting 

 mates or birds which late in the season are for some reason 

 (possibly " residual song," see below) much more inclined 

 than the average to warble in the day time. By the middle 

 of March the chorus is in full swing at the two dusks. 



