REFLECTION
While I was looking over a hedge into a small market garden the other day, my attention was taken by the antics of .a cock blackbird that seemed to be fluttering up and colliding with something, then falling back and repeating the performance again and again. At first I thought the bird was after some kind of insect in a small bush, but the results of the attack, the falling down and the odd feather that drifted away, indicated a solid obstruction. It was then that, by moving my viewpoint, I noticed a pane of glass that had evidently been part of a dismantled cloche. The blackbird was attacking his reflection and doing so for all he was worth. A moment or two later another blackbird alighted on the ground close at hand. He watched for a moment or two and then his curiosity led him to approach the bird fighting his imaginary rival. It was a rash thing to do, for, tumbling back for the twentieth time, the aggressive blackbird saw the newcomer emerge from what he may have imagined was the back of the glass and turned his attention to him with doubled fury. Immediately the victim fled in alarm, hotly chased by the angry one, until both passed out of my sight.
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