A fight that began on the landing outside of a party on the fourth-floor of the B Entry of Kirkland House spilled into the Eliot House courtyard Saturday night, sending one student and an area man to the hospital, police and students said.

A Harvard senior who was at the party was punched in the nose and mouth and severely bitten on his ear, according to the police report of the incident. The senior, who requested anonymity, yesterday confirmed the fight.

John F. Mahoney, 21, of Malden, will be charged with assault and battery today in Cambridge Third District Court in connection with the attack on the Harvard senior, according to the police report. Charges against Mahoney may be upgraded to include assault and battery with intent to commit mayhem (violently inflicting a bodily injury), police said.

Mahoney did not return repeated calls to his home in Malden yesterday.

A second area man, Daniel O'Neil, was bitten on the left forearm during the altercation by an unknown assailant and was also transported to Mt. Auburn Hospital.

No charges will be filed against the Harvard student, according to the police report.

Almost all on-duty Harvard police officers were summoned to the Eliot House courtyard after the house security guard reported a "large fight" in progress around midnight, police said.

The fight, which police said was between "groups of friends" started on a landing outside of a registered fourth-floor party in Kirkland House, police and students involved said.

Students interviewed yesterday said the Harvard senior fought with two men, both of whom had been invited to the party and are friends of Harvard students. When the altercation began on the fourth-floor landing, only the Harvard senior and the persons with whom he fought were involved, students said.

But the injured Harvard senior pursued the men with whom he had been fighting out of Kirkland House and into the Eliot House courtyard, according to Melissa Fisher, who lives on the fourth floor but says she did not see the men fighting.

When the fight continued outside, bystanders joined in on both sides, the students said. Police and students were unable to say yesterday how many persons were involved in the courtyard incident.

The senior, who was treated for his injuries at Mt. Auburn Hospital, was released around 4 a.m. Sunday, he said.

Fisher said spots of blood dotted parts of the fourth-floor hallway. But the blood has been cleaned up and there was noother damage to the entryway as a result of thefight, she said.

The senior said Mahoney started the fightwithout provocation. "He accused me of making funof him or something like that. I had no idea whathe was talking about, then a fight broke out," thestudent said.

Police said the senior and Mahoney "exchangedwords and started fighting."

"It happened in such a hurry and [around such]mayhem," the senior said. "I've never seenanything like it. I was pretty shocked."

Eliot House Senior Tutor Elizabeth Minott wentto the hospital with the senior, according topolice Minott declined to comment on the incidentyesterday.

O'Neil was also taken to Mt. Auburn Hospital,where he was treated and released, police said.O'Neil, of Lee, Mass., could not be reached forcomment