80 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



number of both sexes ; and yet, if either the cock or 

 the hen be killed before breeding 1 , the remaining bird 

 usually finds a second mate. The cock of the mi- 

 grative species Montagu thinks never quits the place 

 he first resorts to, but attracts the females by his 

 song ; and hence, he conceives, it is probable that 

 such females as have not at first paired, or lost their 

 mates by accident, continually wander about in search 

 of another. 



If we may be permitted to draw an inference from 

 a bird in confinement, we should be disposed to 

 question the fact of the cock of migratory birds 

 selecting a station, and singing there till a hen was 

 attracted. Our caged black-cap, already mentioned, 

 appeared to be actuated by different feelings ; for 

 he continued to exhibit the migratory agitation of 

 hopping impatiently about his cage during the 

 night, long after the species had arrived in this 

 country. His agitation commenced exactly on the 

 1st of April, though, on the same day, we heard 

 three or four of those newly arrived singing in the 

 gardens ; and one had been observed in the neigh- 

 bourhood more than a week before. It is worthy of 

 remark, also, that he had been in song from before 

 Christmas, which could not well have been intended 

 to attract a mate. But what we consider most to 

 the point, his migratory agitation did riot cease till 

 the 10th of June, and he hopped about as incessantly 

 on the night of the 9th as he had done at the com- 

 mencement on the 1st of April. Now though, from 

 confinement being an unnatural state, we cannot 

 reason with certainty from circumstances then oc- 

 curring, yet it seems probable that our bird, if he had 

 been at liberty, would have continued to* migrate 

 every night, and to sing, as he did, part of every 

 day (snatching a few minutes* sleep occasionally) 

 till he had found a mate*. 



* J.R. 



