PEPACTON 



the males. With the birds the reverse is the case, 

 the males coming a week or ten days before the 

 females. The female fish is usually the larger and 

 stronger, and perhaps better able to take the lead; 

 among most reptiles the same fact holds, and 

 throughout the insect world there is to my know- 

 ledge no exception to the rule. Among the birds, 

 the only exception I am aware of is in the case of 

 the birds of prey. Here the female is the larger 

 and stronger. If you see an exceptionally large 

 and powerful eagle, rest assured the sex is feminine. 

 But higher in the scale the male comes to the front 

 and leads in size and strength. 



But the first familiar spring birds are cocks; 

 hence the songs and tilts and rivalries. Hence also 

 the fact that they are slightly in excess of the other 

 sex, to make up for this greater exposure; appar- 

 ently no courting is done in the South, and no 

 matches are prearranged. The males leave irreg- 

 ularly without any hint, I suspect, to the females 

 as to when and where they will meet them. In 

 the case of the passenger pigeon, however, the two 

 sexes travel together, as they do among the migrat- 

 ing water-fowls. 



With the song-birds, love-making begins as soon 

 as the hens are here. So far as I have observed, 

 the robin and the bluebird win their mates by gentle 

 and fond approaches; but certain of the sparrows, 

 notably the little social sparrow or "chippie," ap- 

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