A CAT'S INFLUENCE 265 



exaltation that throws a sort of triumph into it. It 

 is an access, an overflowing, of happiness, and the 

 note of love, though, now, in winter, a little subdued, 

 must be there too, for, as I say, these birds mate for 

 life. So, at least, I feel sure, and so I believe it to 

 be with most other birds. Permanent union, with 

 recurrent incentive to unite, matrimony always and 

 courtship every spring — as one aerates, at intervals, 

 the water in an aquarium — that, I believe, is the 

 way of it ; a good way, too — the next best plan to 

 changing the water is not to let it get stagnant. 



Whenever I can catch at evidence in regard to 

 the sexual relations of birds, it always seems to point 

 in this direction. Take, for instance, that species 

 to which I now devote the rest of this chapter, the 

 moorhen, namely — Gallinula chloropus — for the dab- 

 chick has been an encroachment. A very small 

 pond in my orchard of some three half-dead fruit- 

 trees was tenanted by a single pair, who built their 

 nest there yearly. Had it not been for a cat, whose 

 influence and position in the family was fixed beyond 

 my power of shaking, I should have made, one year, 

 a very close study, indeed, of the domestic economy 

 of these two birds; but this tiresome creature, either 

 by the aid of a clump of rushes, amidst which it was 

 situated, or by jumping out boldly from the bank, 

 got at the nest, though it was at some distance, 

 and upset the eggs into the water. As a conse- 

 quence, the birds deserted both nest and pond, nor 

 did the lost opportunity ever return. A few points 

 of interest, however, I had been able to observe, 

 before the cat intervened. The year before, I had 

 noticed two slight nests in the pond, in neither of 



