236 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



of his ardent breast. He perches beside her, caresses her in the tender- 

 est and most loving fashion, and sings to her in most endearing terms. 

 Perhaps he may bring to her some delicious morsel and place it gently 

 in her mouth, as an offering. Probably he has already chosen the 

 cavity or box that he thinks will suit her; he leads her to it, looks in, 

 and tries to persuade her to accept it, but much persistent wooing is 

 needed before the nuptial pact is sealed. In the meantime a rival 

 male may appear upon the scene and a rough and tumble fight ensue, 

 the males clinching in the air and falling to the ground together, a 

 confusing mass of blue and brown feathers struggling in the grass; 

 but no very serious harm seems to have been done, as they separate 

 and use their most persuasive charms to attract the object of their 

 rivalry. At times, a second female may join in the contest and start 

 a lively fight with her rival for the mate she wants. John Burroughs 

 (1894) gives an interesting account of such a four-cornered contest, 

 too long to be quoted here, in which the female of an apparently mated 

 pair seemed to waver in her affections between her supposed mate 

 and the new rival; and the latter seemed to have left the female of 

 his first choice to win the bride of the other. However, after a much 

 prolonged contest, the matter seemed to be satisfactorily settled, for 

 two pairs of bluebirds finally flew off in different directions and started 

 up housekeeping without further trouble. 



But bluebirds are not always constant in their nuptial ties, even 

 when they have raised a brood together successfully. Mrs. Nice 

 (1930a) cites a case in which a male had a different mate for the second 

 brood but returned to the first mate for the third brood, all in the 

 same year. Seth H. Low (1934) has indicated, by banding at a station 

 on Cape Cod, Mass., that bluebirds select different mates in successive 

 seasons; he says: "In 1932 eight pairs of adults were banded at the 

 Station. From two pairs neither bird returned. One adult from 

 each of five pairs was captured nesting with a new mate. As it can- 

 not be proved that each of the former mates were alive, it cannot be 

 concluded that these birds were inconstant. Both adults did return 

 from the eighth pair, but each took a new mate. No conclusions on 

 mating constancy can be drawn from this one case." 



T. E. Musselman (1935) writes: "During the first nesting period in 

 1935, I banded eighteen mothers. During the second nesting I found 

 that none of these birds were in my nests, which leads me to believe 

 that the mother bluebirds probably travel a number of miles between 

 the first and second nesting and probably fly in small irregular bands 

 with the broods of young birds. The second nesting is carried on 

 by stray mothers which have formerly nested elsewhere." 



If a male bluebird loses his mate, he quickly secures another. Dr. 

 T. Gilbert Pearson (1917) tells of one that had three mates in a 



