PAIRING INSTINCT OF BIRDS. 



rookery) return to their old nests, and commence doing 

 the necessary repairs required for the comfort of their 

 future brood ; while others, whose nests have been des- 

 troyed, diligently set to work to reconstruct them in the 

 same sites, in company with many of the last year's brood 

 which have paired some time during the previous six 

 months. Can any ornithologist inform me of any com- 

 bat he has been witness to for the choice of the nests 

 which have withstood the storms of winter? A few 

 pairs of rooks will sometimes desert the general rookery 

 and build their nests in neighbouring trees, returning to 

 them yearly. 



Ravens, Magpies, Jackdaws, Starlings, House Spar- 

 rows, birds of the Falcon tribe and Titmice, have all 

 been known to return to their nests of the previous 

 season. I have known the Robin and the Wren return 

 to their old sites (but not to the old nests) for several 

 years. From what I have observed, the Ringdove and 

 'Partridge too are very probably life- paired species. 

 From these instances I would infer that all birds which 

 return to their old nests or nesting-sites for the same 

 purpose every season pair for life. Witness the various 

 marks of affection constantly passing between life-paired 

 birds : keeping in each other's company, feeding, often 

 the male bird feeding his mate, flying and roosting 

 together, so that the observer, as a rule, experiences but 

 little difficulty in identifying them. Ovid must have 

 had life-paired birds in mind when he wrote the follow- 

 ing lines expressive of constancy in the male bird : 



Hanc cupit, hanc optat ; sola suspirat in ilia ; 

 Signaque dat nutu, solicitatque notis. 



In the second place, those birds which pair annually : 

 the birds which form this division are the most numerous 



B 2 



