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Mixed Diglossini, May 5, 1965, III.

SEE ALSO TODAY'S NOTES ON MIXED FLOCKS & COMMENTS BELOW.

[[margin]] Cy [[/margin]]  8:50  2750 m.  Region mixed scrub, bamboo, and a few of trees festooned with epiphyes.  Have been watching 2 Cys.  Doing a lot of singing.  In trees.  Sometimes in same tree.  Sometimes in different trees quite far apart.  And then suddenly pandemonium breaks loose.  2 or more birds suddenly fly down into very low scrub.  Only a few inches above ground.  Quite invisible.  But uttering lots and [[underlined]] lots [[/underlined]] very fast, long Twitters.  Also a a few short Hoarse Notes, scattered apparently at random among Twitters.  Then one bird flies up and away.  Flight rather peculiar.  Head held high, [[underlined]] belly [[/underlined]] apparently fluffed.  When I look back at low scrub, another Cy emerges hopping.  Normal posture.  Silent.  [[underlined]] But holding long strand n.m. in bill!!! [[/underlined]]  Sits a minute.  [[underlined]] Then, [[/underlined]] I see that there is another Cy perched quietly in a tree 10 ft above.  So [[underlined]] presumably [[/underlined]] there were [[underlined]] 3 [[/underlined]] [[checkmark checkmark checkmark]] birds involved in this incident.  The 2 remaining fly off quietly.  One [[underlined]] still [[/underlined]] holding n.m.

I rather imagine that this may have been a "rape" attempt (which could also, perhaps, be described as a "Pounce") by an "outside" [[male symbol]] upon a [[female symbol]] of a pair.  Perhaps stimulated by the sight of her beginning to nest build???

In any case, it may be significant that the incident was accompanied by so many "Songs".  Vide, copulating behaviour of Glors.  [[underlined]] Incidentally, none of the Twitters during this incident were preceded by any kind of Intro Note. [[/underlined]]

[[margin]] 98 Cy [[/margin]]  9:25 a.m.  Watching mixed flock only 50 yds [[checkmark checkmark]] away from where the preceding incident occurred.  There are 2 Cys in cluster tall trees about 20 ft "behind" this flock.  Usually not close together.  Often in separate trees.  One of the birds utters quite a lot of Song phrases, while some distance away from the other.  All these phrases consist of Twitters with 1 or 2 "Tsit" Intro Notes.