Notes of Birds. 317 
pairin spring, sing almost incessantly, and 
with great vehemence ; that from the time of 
pairmg till the hens begin to sit, they are 
neither so vociferous, nor so frequently heard 
as before ; that during the time of incubation 
their songs are again loud, but not so reit- 
erated as at the first; and that so soon as the 
young are excluded from the eggs, they 
cease singing entirely :* but it may be re- 
marked, that if they are not heard so fre- 
quently and earnestly after pairimg as before, 
most probably it is because they are occupied 
in attending to the females; and I have al- 
ready observed, that their amatory notes, 
which they chiefly use at this period, are to- 
tally different from their ordinary songs. 
When the hens are sitting, or by any accident 
happen to be separated from their mates, the 
attention of the latter is much less engross- 
ed; their notes of love are suspended, and 
their customary strains renewed. It isa very 
mistaken notion of Montagu, that the songs 
of these birds cease immediately when their 
eggs are hatched, as, in numerous instances, 
it is notorious that they continue even for 
some time after the young have left the nest, 
Surely it is needless to insist, that it cannot 
* See the Introduction to the Ornithological Dictionary, p. 30, 31. 
