The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-09-09
AERIAL WARFARE.
Battles Between the Birds While
on the Wing.
Tho Little Feathered Fighters Sometimes
Take Each Others Lives In Their
Struggles for supremacy-Btrd
Life Tragedies.

It's the custom nowadays to speak Of
the English sparrow as if he was the
only quarrelsome member of the flock,
while all the rest of the feathered song
sters dwelt in peace and harmony. But
there's many deadly battle waged in
the tree-tops in which no immigrant
from over the sea has bill. says tho
Lewiston {Me.) Journal The bluebirds
and the swallows have been carrying
on long warfare over martin house,
and the outcry up there followed by the
expulsion of one bird with two or three
of his enemies in close pursuit is moth
ing unusual
A few weeks ago. when the japanese
ounces were in blossom. there were al
ways two or more humming- birds how
ering over each bush. On one of these
bright feeding grounds the daily visitors
were but three-a pair Of birds and one
lone songster. That poor winged wild
over or bachelor Jared hardly at the
hands Of his two fellow-laborers. The
pair divided their time about equally
between gathering insects and chasing
off what they were pleased to consider
the intruder on their preserves. Hardly
bite could he get for their attentions
But he was persevering He'd fly off to
q eighboring pear tree, and as soon as
his pursuers' backs were turned, like q
fash of light he was back again, try
ing to get his bill into a flower be-
fore one of his rivals saw him. But it
was two against one, and he must have
often gone hungry to bed or else picked
up his supper elsewhere.
Sometimes the results of the battle
are more tragic. The home of pair of
cuckoos who had planned to spend a
long and happy summer in the suburbs
Of Lewiston has been broken up and
only one now remains, and that one too
morning lying under rosebush with a
fatal wound in his side, made by
king-bird's sharp bill. The wounded
songster was picked up and tenderly
cared for, but he was past all remedies.
But his enemy did not long survive him.
A week or two later some lookers-on saw
duel between warrior that looked
like that same king bird and plucky
young robin who fought as if he meant
to get revenge for the many indignities
his race had suffered at the hands of
the whole tribe of tyrannus intrepidus.
And victory perched upon his banners.
At the end of hard-fought battle the
king-bird lay dead on the ground, while
the robin retired to the branches Of q
tree, where he spent the rest of the
forenoon in resting from his hard labors.
Nor do these little warriors confne
their valor to comb bats with their own
kind. In an emergency they will attack
even a more formidable enemy. Let
anyone who doubts this try to take a
young robins. How the parent bird
will scold and occasionally swoop down
in the forlorn hope of frightening off
the unwelcome visitor. They've been
known to attack cats and put this
dreaded foe of theirs to fight, too,
though perhaps they are not so apt to
worry this enemy as are the swallows.
day to 60 to the rescue of the family
cat, which started up from nap on the
doorstep to snarl and spit at some I'M
seen enemy, at first supposed to be q
dog. Pity changed to blame as the
feline paw was raised to strike at what
was then discovered to be a bird But
second more proved that the cat was
not to blame that time. 1t was the barn
swallow that was the aggressor, and
that showed no signs of giving up the
advantage it had gained in finding its
enemy mapping. till the opening of a
door to let the cat In frightened the
winged warrior away