30 SINGING-BIRDS. 



couple whose habit is to rear but one brood are robbed 

 of their nest, they will make a new one, and the male 

 in this case continues in song to a later i)eriod than those 

 who w^ere not disturbed. 



If the male bird loses his mate during incubation, he 

 seldom takes her place, but becomes once more very 

 tuneful, uttering his call-notes loudly for several days 

 and finally changing them into song. It would seem, 

 therefore, that the song of the bird proceeds in some 

 degree from discontent, — from his w^ant of a mate, in 

 the one case, or from her absence when she is sitting, 

 in the other. Tlie buoyancy of spirits produced by the 

 season and the full supply of his physical wants are 

 joined with the pains of absence, which he is determined 

 to relieve by exerting all his power to entice his partner 

 from her nest. I have often thought that the almost 

 uninterrupted song of caged birds proves their singing to 

 arise from a desire to entice a companion into their own 

 little prison. Hence, when an old bird from our fields 

 is caught and caged during the breeding-season, he will 

 continue his tunefulness long after all others of the same 

 species have become silent. The Bobolink in a state of 

 freedom will not sing after the middle of July ; but if 

 one be caught and caged, he will continue to warble 

 more loudly than he did in liis native meadows until 

 September. 



It is generally believed that singing-birds are chiefly 

 confined to temperate latitudes. That this is an error 

 is apparent from the testimony of travellers, who speak 

 of the birds of Africa and of the Sandwich Islands as 

 singing delightfully; and some fine songsters are occa- 

 sionally imported from tropical countries. It should 

 be considered that in these hot regions the birds are 

 more scattered and are not so well known as those 

 of temperate latitudes, which are generally inhabited 



