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THE. CO.IB.R e s oAAt Ao]5 o sY Volume XVIII l?la?'-June, 1916 Number THE SHADOW-BOXING OF PIPILO By DONALD R. DICKEY WITH FIVE PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR VIDENCE of the pugnacious instinet 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 si'ght 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 agai? 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 oile?l gladiators of old. Unfortunately in these cases we can do no more than call on our imagina- tion, fo: these a? 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 York City, you can see that rough and tumble of the English Sparrow ragamuf- fins in the gutter, which heralds the approa6h of spring. The more fortunate Californian sees frequently the aerial melee of two Western Mockers as they