Fox Sparrows 
f^hting 
w 
however, which indicated that cettain birds were vmpopular 
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 
unfortmate was invariably set upon by three or four of 
them at once, whenever it attempted to approach the 
seed bed. 
Most of the fights that I watched were siiiple 
duels, however, quickly ended and not again resumed so 
far as I could discover. Indeed, it was very common for 
two birds to be feeding quietly side by side immediately 
after they had settled their little dispute. They fought 
in three slightly different ways?: (l) by making a quick 
level dash at one another either on foot or on wing and 
only just above the surface of the ground; (2) by 
standing motionless for an instant, beak to beak, and 
then springing up into the air six to eight inches, 
api^arently striking with bills and feet (but not at all 
forcibly) like game-cocks, just as they came together; 
(3) by flutter,ing straight upward to a height of five 
or even eight or ten feet, facing one another all the 
while, their bills almost touching, but not so far as 
^ could see either thrusting or striking with bill or 
feet. Whenever, at the close of any one of these encounters, 
one of the birds turned tail and fled, he was never 
pursued more than a yard or two and often, as I have 
just said, he would at once resume feeding within a 
