138 Summer Studies of Birds and Books CHAP. 



voices of several species of birds long after the 

 natural period of pairing and nesting was past. 

 Some of these birds, it may be argued, were having 

 late broods ; eggs may be found even in August. 

 But a little watching will generally show whether 

 this is so or not ; and I am confident that it was not 

 so with most of the birds I listened to. The most 

 persistent of these is the Yellowhammer, who will 

 go on singing throughout the summer, associating 

 his monotonous strain with the sultriness of the 

 unchanging August days. Yesterday it happened to 

 me to drive some twenty miles through the country 

 between Oxford and the Chilterns ; and I may 

 honestly say that on that last day of July there was 

 a Yellowhammer singing in every hundred yards of 

 open country through which I passed. 



What can be the meaning of such persistence? 

 Are these birds looking back regretfully to the happy 

 courtships of last spring, or hopefully looking forward 

 to fresh happiness in the spring to come ? Or are 

 they practising, as Darwin imagined, practising with 

 a view to outdo their rivals next pairing season? 

 Surely this would compel us to assume that the 

 mind of the bird, from February to September or 

 later, is wholly occupied with thoughts of matrimony. 

 To me it seems much more probable that when the 

 young are grown up such thoughts are no longer in 

 the mind of the parent bird, and that their place is 



