BUZZARD'S REST. 55 



with its partners deatli. Indeed, I am sorry to conclude, 

 that grief at the loss of a mate is of very short duration 

 usually, notwithstanding there is so much evidence of 

 their faithfulness to marriage vows during their lives. 



The familiar little sparrow-hawk finally offers a strik- 

 ing instance of permanent bird -marriage. A pair of 

 these pretty falcons have for five years nested near the 

 residence of a neighbor, and when the labor of rearing 

 their young was ended, they retired to the slielter af- 

 forded by the projecting eaves of my neighbor's house, 

 and there remained until tlie following spring. Tliese 

 birds were quite as affectionate and mutually consid- 

 erate in winter, as when they had the common interest 

 of offspring to keep them together. 



Dr. Brewer says of the winter falcon, " These hawks 

 remain mated throughout the year, and their affection- 

 ate treatment of each other is in striking contrast with 

 the selfish indifference of the Eed-tail species w^hen 

 their breeding season is ended." 



In the case of our game birds and others that are sub- 

 ject to great persecution, the chances are, of course, 

 against both parents surviving until the following breed- 

 ing season. It is quite possible that such a state of con- 

 stant change results in blunting the affections, and the 

 association of the sexes becomes a mere matter of tem- 

 porary gratification, something akin to, but not so gross 

 as the habits of the cowpen-bird, which is never mated, 

 and for several months in the year deposits fertile cggQ 

 in the nests of other birds, and sometimes in empty 

 nests, lono- after the birds who built them had rehired 

 their broods and departed. 



