248 HISTORY OF 



venture into danger till it is caught ; such a fas- 

 cinating power have the call-birds. 



Indeed, it is not easy to account for the nature 

 of this call, whether it be a challenge to combat, 

 an invitation to food, or a prelude to courtship. 

 As the call-birds are all males, and as the wild 

 birds that attend to their voice are most frequently 

 males also, it does not seem that love can have 

 any influence in their assiduity. Perhaps the 

 wild females, in these flights, attend to and obey 

 the call below, and the male companions of their 

 flight come down to bear them company. If this 

 be the case, and that the females have unfaith- 

 fully led their mates into the nets, they are the 

 first that are punished for their infidelity; the 

 males are only made captives for singing, while 

 the females are indiscriminately killed, and sold 

 to be served up to the tables of the delicate. 



Whatever be the motives that thus arrest a 

 flock of birds in their flight, whether they be 

 those of gallantry or of war, it is certain that the 

 small birds are equally remarkable for both. It 

 is, perhaps, the genial desire that inspires the 

 courage of most animals ; and that being greatest 

 in the males, gives them a greater degree of va- 

 lour than the females. Small birds, being ex- 

 tremely amorous, are remarkably brave. How- 

 ever contemptible these little warriors are to 

 larger creatures, they are often but too formid- 

 able to each other, and sometimes fight till one 

 of them yields up his life with the victory. But 

 their contentions are sometimes of a gentler na- 

 ture. Two male birds shall strive in song, till, 



