APRIL 103 
largely on ants and crickets, and does not appear till 
they are to be found. 
In Solomon’s description of spring, the voice of 
the turtle is prominent, but our turtle, or mourning 
dove, though it arrives in April, can hardly be said 
to contribute noticeably to the open-air sounds. Its 
call is so vague, and soft, and mournful, — in fact, 
so remote and diffused,— that few persons ever hear 
it at all. 
Such songsters as the cow blackbird are noticeable 
at this season, though they take a back seat a little 
later. It utters a peculiarly liquid April sound. 
Indeed, one would think its crop was full of water, 
its notes so bubble up and regurgitate, and are de- 
livered with such an apparent stomachic contraction. 
This bird is the only feathered polygamist we have. 
The females are greatly in excess of the males, and 
the latter are usually attended by three or four of 
the former. As soon as the other birds begin to 
build, they are on the quz vive, prowling about like 
gypsies, not to steal the young of others, but to 
steal their eggs into other birds’ nests, and so shirk 
the labor and responsibility of hatching and rearing 
their own young. As these birds do not mate, and 
as therefore there can be little or no rivalry or com- 
petition between the males, one wonders — in view 
of Darwin’s teaching —why one sex should have 
brighter and richer plumage than the other, which 
is the fact. The males are easily distinguished 
from the dull and faded females by their deep 
glossy-black coats. 
