IN PAIRING TIME 127 



holes in the earth and rocks, and other convenient 

 retreats, there to live the life natural, supported by 

 the fruits of the earth. All prudential considerations 

 being thus sunk in the matrimonial turmoil, what 

 contentions, what sudden rivalries would arise ; with 

 what desperate arts would men and women lay 

 themselves out to captivate or capture the indispens- 

 able mate, so as not to fail of that brief period of 

 idyllic happiness ere the moulting season or, not to 

 strain the analogy the season of separation came 

 round with the autumn? 



Only by some such extravagant picture can one 

 suggest to the minds of respectable, domesticated 

 citizens, the wild spring carnival of bird-mating. 



It is true there are among the sedentary species 

 examples of staider habit, and permanent union has 

 the sanction of some of the wisest heads of the cor- 

 vine group ; whilst, in the case of the Bullfinch a 

 bird of singularly amiable and even disposition it 

 would seem to result from a habit of affection, the 

 young being known at times to continue with their 

 parents even during the winter months. 



Such union occurs, as stated, among sedentary 

 species ; and it is doubtful that it could survive the 

 ordeal of migration. For, the migratory impulse is 

 known to dissolve even the closer tie subsisting 

 between the parent bird and its nestling. Nature 

 seems at such times to drive out her children in 

 designed confusion ; and the winnowing fan of death 

 plays continually over the migrating host. Each bird 

 follows its own fate, supported only by the will to 

 live, and the stimulating sight of those thousands of 

 wings faring onward by the old way of wandering. 



