IN PAIRING TIME 129 



extremely remote; and finally that for three years 

 one pair, and one only has nested there, against 

 the same beam. One member of the pair might 

 suffice to keep up the tenancy ; but in that case it 

 would probably accept a new mate only because the 

 old one was dead. 



However this may be, it abates little of the wild 

 spirit of license and rivalry referred to as characteristic 

 of the spring mating of birds. 



As might be expected, some of the home birds 

 (Stretford-on-the- Mersey, Lanes.) first set the pairing 

 fashion in early spring. I think no bird gives signs 

 of pairing earlier than the Hedge-sparrow. The 

 plaintive, "peeping" note that seemed so fitly to 

 accompany autumn decay and the dull, dead winter 

 days, becomes less insistent as January progresses, 

 and the breathlessly hurried song bubbles over 

 whenever the rigour of the season abates even a 

 little. Then about the middle of the month these 

 birds may be seen flitting along the hedgesides in 

 couples ; and where they alight the male continues 

 to hop from twig to twig about his prospective 

 consort with an artless twitter and an excited 

 shuddering of half-open wings. Occasionally the 

 male bird flies out from the hedgetop, and as he 

 circles round to a perching-place a little farther on, 

 he utters, whilst still flying, snatches of his double- 

 noted song, his mate following him in plainer 

 fashion, no doubt duly impressed by this display of 

 gratuitous flight, and by the unusual vision of her 

 spouse-to-be singing in mid air without a supporting 

 twig. Simpler courtship there could not well be, 

 nor one more appropriate to that time of first stirrings 



