THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 255 



love is awakened long before breeding time, usually in 

 the first autumn of their lives. This fact has not been 

 announced before, and should be supported by weighty 

 proof, therefore I will now proceed to name the birds 

 whose young I have myself heard singing in the au- 

 tumn. . . . Young magpies (Corvus pica) produce in 

 September, often in August and October as well, the long 

 metallic notes that characterize them in spring, just be- 

 fore pairing. ... I have often heard the Picus vindi- 

 cation piping in September as beautifully as in April, and 

 indeed the Picus major sometimes hums in the autumn, 

 picking absently meanwhile among the dry branches 

 just as he does in spring. The crossbill and some wood- 

 peckers sing before they have shed their first feathers. 

 Young house and field sparrows not only chatter and 

 chirp, but swell up their throats and peck at one an- 

 other just as they will do at the pairing time next spring. 

 Red linnets begin their song while still in their baby 

 clothes, learn it perfectly while moulting, and even in 

 winter, if the weather is mild, join in singing with 

 their elders. The wood lark sings as soon as his first 

 moulting is past, not only while at rest, but mounting 

 aloft as in spring, floating about as he sings. All the 

 titmouse family sing, the swamp titmouse producing 

 exactly the note that accompanies breeding, and in Oc- 

 tober, 1821, I saw one approach his mate with all the 

 manifestations that precede pairing in the spring, while 

 she dropped her wings and spread her tail." Brehm 

 goes on to mention similar songs and actions on the 

 part of starlings, water wagtails, willow wrens, black- 

 and heath-cocks, and a great variety of other birds, and 

 says in conclusion: " The fact that pairing does not 

 follow these demonstrations proves their dissimilarity 

 to those of domestic fowls. The young cock is phys- 



