DEVIOUS PATHS 



birds could stand the strain no longer, the limit of 

 fair competition had been reached, and seeming to 

 say, " I will silence you, anyhow," it made a spite- 

 ful dive at its rival, and in hot pursuit the two dis- 

 appeared in the bushes beneath the tree. Of course 

 I would not say that the birds were consciously 

 striving to outdo each other in song ; it was the old 

 feud between males in the love season, not a war of 

 words or of blows, but of song. Had the birds been 

 birds of brilliant plumage, the rivalry would prob- 

 ably have taken the form of strutting and showing 

 off their bright colors and ornaments. 



An English writer on birds, Edmund Selous, de- 

 scribes a similar song contest between two night- 

 ingales. " Jealousy," he says, " did not seem to blind 

 them to the merit of each other's performance. 

 Though often one, upon hearing the sweet, hostile 

 strains, would burst forth instantly itself, — and 

 here there was no certain mark of appreciation, 

 — yet sometimes, perhaps quite as often, it would 

 put its head on one side and listen with exactly the 

 appearance of a musical connoisseur, weighing, 

 testing, and appraising each note as it issued from 

 the rival bill. A curious, half-suppressed expression 

 would steal, or seem to steal (for Fancy may play 

 her part in such matters), over the listening bird, 

 and the idea appear to be, ' How exquisite would be 



those strains were they not sung by , and yet 



I must admit that they are exquisite.' " Fancy no 

 115 



