128 IN PAIRING TIME 



Of birds that come from farther north as immigrants 

 to pass the winter with us, it is only possible to learn 

 that, with the return of spring, some begin, even in 

 this land of exile, to associate in pairs previous to 

 their return to their northern nesting haunts. Field- 

 fares, of which none remains here normally to breed, 

 may be observed at that time sportively to chase 

 and dip at one another in flight, displaying individual 

 preferences in marked contrast with their impartial 

 bearing toward one another during their winter 

 sojourn with us. But, whether such birds are former 

 associates, first-year birds never yet paired, or indeed 

 old stagers seeking alliance with younger blood, it is 

 not possible to ascertain. 



Still I have in mind a certain stable-loft, accessible 

 only through a small door purposely left open, to 

 which a pair of migrant birds House-martins 

 yearly return, and, whether in their winter exile 

 they may have continued together, or have mingled 

 indiscriminately with their fellows, I have little 

 doubt that, saving death by the way, the birds that 

 come thus to claim the old nesting-site, are those 

 that nested there in the previous season ; and that, 

 finding themselves, after wandering, perhaps, by 

 separate ways, again in the old surroundings, they 

 feel the old charm, and renew the old alliance. I 

 rest my argument upon the facts that this loft with 

 its small entrance would in the ordinary way scarcely 

 attract a bird to enter it at all ; that the original birds, 

 having once nested there, would upon returning to 

 this country certainly repair thither, and that, failing 

 their doing so, the chances of a distinct pair replacing 

 them in so unusual a building-place would be 



