THE BIRD IN BLUE 13 



quarry to come its way. At the breeding season, how- 

 ever, it becomes very sprightly. It is then more than 

 usually vociferous and indulges in a course of aerial 

 gymnastics. It may be seen at these throughout the 

 month of March, now towering high above the earth, 

 then dropping headlong down, to suddenly check itself 

 and sail away, emitting the while the hoarsest and 

 wheeziest notes imaginable, and behaving generally 

 like the proverbial March hare. These performances 

 are either actual love-making or a prelude to it. By 

 the end of March the various birds have sorted them- 

 selves out, and then the billing and cooing stage begins. 



At this season the birds are invariably found in 

 pairs ; the cock and hen delight to sit side by side on 

 some exposed branch. Like the young couples that 

 moon about Hyde Park on Sundays, blue jays do not 

 mind spooning in public. As the sexes dress alike 

 it is not possible to say which of a couple is the 

 cock and which is the hen. Under such circumstances 

 naturalists always assume that the bird which makes 

 the advances is the cock. I am not at all sure that 

 this assumption is justified. Among human beings the 

 ladies very frequently set their caps at the men. Why 

 should not the fair sex among birds do likewise ? 



In many species the sexes dress differently, and it is 

 then easy to discover which sex " makes the running," 

 and in such cases this is by no means always the cock. 

 I have seen one hen paradise flycatcher drive away 

 another and then go and make up to a cock bird. Simi- 

 larly I have seen two hen orioles behave in a very un- 

 ladylike manner to one another, all because they both had 



