rhood as the Ravens are of them, and consequently there is
incessant quarrelling wherever the same locality is inhabited. As a
rule, the fighting occurs whilst the birds are on the wing; the Buzzard
rises to a considerable height, and, closing its wings, stoops at the
Raven below, and when within a short distance of its adversary, swerves
upwards and gains a position from which it can again attack. The
Buzzard, however, is by no means always the aggressor; I have watched
one so persistently harassed by a Raven that at length it left the rock
upon which it was resting and disappeared from view, still followed by
its rival. Thus it seems as if they were evenly matched, and, when they
occupy the same locality, it is interesting to notice how the initiative
passes from the one to the other according to the position occupied by
the birds in their respective territories.

[Illustration: Peregrine Falcon attacking a Raven

Emery Walker ph.sc.]

That there is constant warfare between the Green Woodpecker and the
Starling is well known, the purpose of the Starling being to gain
possession of the hole which the Woodpecker with much skill has drilled
for itself. As far as my experience goes, the Starling is always the
aggressor, and there is only too good reason to fear that, in the course
of time, the Green Woodpecker will disappear as a result of the greater
fertility and tenacity of its enemy. The Martin suffers a similar kind
of persecution from the House-Sparrow, and here again there is reason to
believe that the greater virility of the Sparrow will hasten the
extinction of its rival. In cases of this description the purpose of the
fighting is clear, and one can understand why such divergent species
should be hostile to one another; yet others, equally remote in the
scale of nature, are hostile when no such ostensible reason can be
assigned for their hostility. Few birds are more pugnacious than the
Moor-Hen, and the determined manner in which different individuals fight
with one another is notorious. But the intolerance it displays towards
other species is no less remarkable, and its pugnacious instinct seems
to be peculiarly susceptible to stimulation by different individuals
belonging to widely divergent forms. At one moment a Lapwing may be
attacked, at another a Thrush or a Starling, harmless strangers that
have approached the pool to drink; even a Water-Rail, as it threads its
way through the rushes, may fail to escap