COURTSHIP. 89 



able conviction, that it is not good to live alone, 

 and all the energies become centred upon one 

 object — the finding of a mate and the founding 

 of a home. 



The fashion?, customs and traditions requisite, 

 to be observed in bird society in securing this 

 mate are as varied as in our own species. We 

 may roughly divide the methods into conquest 

 by blandishments, and conquest by battle. 



Let us take conquest by blandishments first. 

 These are of several kinds, though by no means 

 sharply divided one from another. They may 

 be classed under the heads of vocal and instru- 

 mental music, dances, antics and display of 

 decorative or brilliantly-coloured plumage. In 

 one or two cases it is hard to say whether we are 

 dealing: with a display of plumage, or an instance 

 of battle. 



The vocal and instrumental music of birds can 

 be studied in Great Britain perhaps to better 

 advantage than anywhere else in the world. 



The glades and meadow-lanes of rural England 

 teem with instances, as our literature, both poetry 

 and prose, bears witness. Perhaps the sk^^lark 

 and the nightingale have secured the largest 

 share of attention. Those who only know that 

 divine songster, the skylark, as a prisoner, beat- 

 ing out its life against the bars of a tiny cage, 

 can scarcely claim to have heard its song ! Who 

 does not feel raised to the seventh heaven of 

 delight in listing to the nightingale trying, as 

 it would seem, to "satiate the hungry dark with 

 melody'"? 



The skylark, the nigbtirigale, the black-cap. 



