188 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



also a female willow-wren that sings nearly as much 

 as the cock; this bird was bred up from the nest, 

 and did not sing at all the first year. Her note is 

 quite different from that of the male, but resembles 

 it sufficiently to indicate that it belongs to the same 

 species."* " In nightingales," says M. Montbeil- 

 lard, " as in other species, there are females which 

 enjoy some prerogatives of the male, and particu- 

 larly participate of his song. I saw a female of 

 that sort which was tame ; her warble resembled 

 that of the male, yet neither so full nor so varied ; 

 she retained it until spring, when, resuming the 

 character of the sex, she exchanged it for the oc- 

 cupation of building her nest and laying her eggs, 

 though she had no mate. It would seem that in 

 warm countries, as in Greece, such females are 

 pretty common, both in this species and many oth- 

 ers ; at least this is implied in a passage of Aris- 

 totle." 



With respect, again, to Mr. Barrington's inference 

 that the want of song in the female is for the pur- 

 pose of concealing the eggs, Mr. Sweet farther says, 

 " I certainly have never heard a thrush sing when 

 sitting" (as had been asserted by a correspondent 

 in a recent periodical work), " perhaps for want of 

 attending to it ; but I have frequently heard and 

 seen the male black-cap sing while sitting on the 

 eggs, and have found its nest by it more than once ; 

 the male of this species sitting nearly as much as 

 the female." These well-authenticated facts, as 

 well as more that we could adduce, are fatal to the 

 theory. 



St. Ambrose, on the other hand, asserts that " the 

 nightingale, by the sweetness of her -song, solaces 

 herself during the long nights in which she is hatch- 

 ing her eggs, watchful and sleepless." 



Another hypothesis advocated by several natural- 



* Magazine of Nat. Hist., i., 346. 



