HOW THE BIRDS KNOW 343 



fields. This has been the custom for ages, but 

 why? Other birds join the chorus with almost the 

 first note, why not start the music occasionally? 



Probably birds know why they select a certain 

 one for a mate. To us it looks very much as if 

 several males surround a female, and the one which 

 can drive away the remainder takes her. When 

 songbirds are mated, no one knows whether it is 

 for life or the season. If undisturbed, owls seem 

 to live a lifetime in one hollow tree. One pair of 

 bluejays remains about our premises every winter. 

 Flickers seem to be in pairs in winter, and so do 

 falcons. Cardinals and crows are in small flocks 

 so that one can not judge. There are great num- 

 bers of dainty little folk, shy, timid creatures, with 

 whom we reach terms of sufferance only when they 

 are bound to their nests during brooding time, and 

 who take to deep wood with their families as soon 

 as brooding is over and spend the winter in the 

 South. Whether they migrate and return in pairs 

 is their secret; I scarcely see how anyone is go- 

 ing to find it out. 



Perhaps bluejays know why, when they prey 

 upon the eggs and young of almost every small 

 bird, they give a danger signal to others the in- 

 stant anything threatens them. It scarcely seems 

 that it can be done for their protection, for as a 

 bird protector a bluejay is a failure. Perhaps it is 

 for the selfish reason that they do not want any- 

 thing else poaching near their location. 



