THE SONGS OF BIRDS 



I have not observed that the robins have these song 

 contests, but the robins scrap so much that they 

 surely find enough other provocations to arouse 

 their ire. 



That caged and unmated birds sing in the season 

 of song shows that the song impulse is a part of the 

 great breeding-passion that surges through all ani- 

 mal life in the vernal season. It is one with the 

 painted flowers, the drifting perfumes, and the 

 extra ornaments and appendages that so many 

 forms of life put on in fulfilling the primal command 

 to "increase and multiply." 



