The Birds and Poets 19 



to have gained so long a lead over the rest of his 

 kind in the neighborhood in the matter of mating. 

 This pair seemed to be the earliest in nesting of 

 any in the whole vicinity. I saw many nests being 

 built, two and three weeks later. 



Naturalists are a good deal divided in opinion 

 as to the object of the birds in singing, and as to 

 what relation it bears to the mating of the birds. 

 Certain it is that the bird's voice serves to express 

 various emotions, such as distress, fear, anger, tri- 

 umph, or mere happiness. It is also true with 

 many species that the female is attracted to the 

 male by his beautiful appearance, and his powers 

 of song, selecting the male that pleases her most 

 in these respects. I do not believe, as contended 

 by some; that the singing of birds is almost exclu- 

 sively the effect of rivalry and emulation. Birds 

 love beautiful and attractive things, as we do, 

 altho' of course with less conscious intelligence, 

 and the beauty of form, color and song of the 

 male, added to the natural mating instinct of the 

 female, determines her choice. With few excep- 

 tions the males, during the mating season, exhibit 

 something very like a definite desire and inten- 

 tion to ensnare the female, by whatever attractions 

 nature may have given them, whether it be of song 

 or plumage. It is altogether probable that the 

 male bird has a mixed purpose in singing, made 

 up of the mere joy of singing, emulation, and, 

 during the mating season, an instinctive desire to 

 excite, attract or fascinate the female bird. 



