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Volume XV111 
May-June, 1916 
Number 3 
THE SHADOW-BOXING OF PIPILO 
By DONALD R. DICKEY 
WITH FIVE PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR 
E VIDENCE of the pugnacious instinct which the approach of the mating 
season brings to the males of most of our birds and mammals is always in- 
teresting. Take the moose for example. For half a year Nature bends 
her energies toward the antler development of the bull, and then, in appar- 
ently wanton forgetfulness of the task accomplished, limits the use of his horns 
to the transient season of mating and of combat. Short as that season is, it 
nevertheless furnishes one of the most striking examples of the height to which 
this pugnacious intolerance of rivals can rise. 
Time after time I have come on deep-pawed holes and trampled horn- 
scarred brush where two New Brunswick bulls had met, and, in the vernacular 
of the North Woods, “sassed each other” with deep-toned grunt and clash of 
antlers on surrounding brush. Sometimes wads of blood-matted hair bore mute 
testimony to the fact that bluff alone had not sufficed to dispose of the weaker 
contestant, and that mortal combat had been resorted to. However common- 
place the sight of such a wilderness ringside may come to be, one can never 
escape a thrill on finding such a spot. In imagination the two great, heavy- 
weight champions again stand challenging each other, with horns stripped of 
their velvet, and burnished for the fray, and with coats in all their early fall 
gloss, like the oiled gladiators of old. 
Unfortunately in these cases we can do no more than call on our imagina- 
tion, for these ai e generally fights in the dark, and the eyes of very few men 
have witnessed them. Luckily, however, we do not need to live a wilderness 
life to find some evidence of the warring of males at the approach of the mating 
season. Restrict yourself to the birds alone, and, even in the heart of New 
fork City, you can see that rough and tumble of the English Sparrow ragamuf- 
fins in the gutter, which heralds the approach of spring. The more fortunate 
Californian sees frequently the aerial melee of two Western Mockers as they 
