BUZZARD'S REST. 55 



with its partner's death. 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 shelter af- 

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

 and there remained until the following spring. These 

 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 Red- tail species when 

 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 eggs 

 in the nests of other birds, and sometimes in empty 

 nests, long after the birds who built them had reared 

 their broods and departed. 



