. Bird watching . turbed as many scores—perhaps hundreds — of them, under the requisiteconditions, as I have units of the others. I have alsoinquired of keepers and warreners, and found their ex-perience to tally with mine. They have spoken of thecock bird leading you astray aerially, whilst the hensits on the nest, and of both of them flying, withscreams, close about your head when the young areout, which statements I have often verified. But theyhave never professed to have seen a peewit flappingover the ground as with a broken wing, in the way itis so constantly said to do. I cannot, theref
. Bird watching . turbed as many scores—perhaps hundreds — of them, under the requisiteconditions, as I have units of the others. I have alsoinquired of keepers and warreners, and found their ex-perience to tally with mine. They have spoken of thecock bird leading you astray aerially, whilst the hensits on the nest, and of both of them flying, withscreams, close about your head when the young areout, which statements I have often verified. But theyhave never professed to have seen a peewit flappingover the ground as with a broken wing, in the way itis so constantly said to do. I cannot, therefore, butthink that, by some chance or other, an action commonto many birds has been particularly, and yet wrongly,ascribed to the peewit. As it seems to me, this is justone of those cases where negative evidence is almostas strong as affirmative, and though, of course, quiteready to accept any properly witnessed instance of thepeewits acting in this way, I cannot but conclude thatit does so very rarely CHAPTER IV Watching Wheateafs, Dabchicks, Oystef-catchers, etc. The wheatear is common over the warren-lands, andas I have been so fortunate as to witness for a wholeafternoon, and very closely, a series of combined dis-plays and combats on the part of two rival males,which struck me as very interesting, and as bearingon the question of sexual selection, I will give theaccount in extenso, as I noted it down from pointto point between the intervals of following the birdsabout on my hands and knees. Should the narrativebe tedious—and it is, I confess, somewhat minute—Ineed not ask my readers to absolve nature and giveme the blame of it, for I am assured that anyone in67 68 BIRD WATCHING the least degree interested in birds and their waysmight have Iain and watched these bizarreries ahundred times repeated, without wishing to get upand go. My observations were made on the lastday but one of March, and are as follows:— (about).—Two male wheatears have for so
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