SIDE LIGHTS ON BIRDS 



seeks the attention of the hens, ascends to a lotty 

 bough, and, suddenly distending his tail feathers 

 with a rattling sound, he actually endeavours to 

 sing. 



Song, indeed, is a most remarkable manifes- 

 tation of the love-instinct, for, as in the human 

 race, it is pressed into action in the case of the 

 most highly qualified and of the least qualified 

 alike. Just as this vast motive may inspire the 

 deathless lines of a Dante, a Tennyson, or a 

 Shelley, so it may force into verse the retired 

 auctioneer, the elderly farmer, or the hair-dresser's 

 assistant, whose isolated eft'orts must sometimes 

 startle their very producers when seen in cold 

 print in the records of the breach-of -promise case. 

 And, in like manner, the very bakers and candle- 

 stick-makers of bird-life are rushed into com- 

 petition with the heaven-born musicians directly 

 their blood is touched by the fire of love and 

 spring. Not alone does the lark ' ' crowd the vast 

 arches of the sky with living notes," and the 

 nightingale " satiate the hungry dusk with 

 melody," but the cormorant on the rock tries his 

 'prentice hand, and the " corbie black" croons 

 something which he plainly takes for a song as he 

 sits on the withered stump. 



Perhaps the one departure from our Western 

 idea of morality to be seen in avian life occurs 

 in the birds that practice polygamy. For al- 

 though the raven and some birds of prey, if their 

 mate be killed, find another with extraordinary 

 quickness, even within a few hours — they cer- 

 tainly stick to her when she is alive. The poly- 

 gamous system appears to work satisfactorily 

 in the fowl tribe, as represented by domestic 

 poultry, black grouse, capercaillie and others, but 

 there is strong reason to think that if it were 

 generally adopted it would lead to disaster. 



no 



