SECOND WEEK] December 315 



insects on the wing like a flycatcher; he clings like a chick- 

 adee to the under side of twigs, or hovers in front of a 

 heap of insect eggs, presenting a feeble imitation of a 

 hummingbird. These modes of feeding represent many 

 different families of birds. 



Although his straw and feather nests are shapeless 

 affairs, and he often feeds on garbage, all aesthetic feeling 

 is not lost, as we see when he swells out his black throat 

 and white cravat, spreads tail and wing and beseeches his 

 lady-love to admire him. Thus he woos her as long as 

 he is alone, but when several other eager suitors arrive, 

 his patience gives out, and the courting turns into a foot- 

 ball game. Rough and tumble is the word, but somehow 

 in the midst of it all, her highness manages to make her 

 mind known and off she flies with the lucky one. Thus 

 we have represented, in the English sparrows, the two 

 extremes of courtship among birds. 



It is worth noting that the male alone is ornamented, 

 the colours of the female being much plainer. This dates 

 from a time when it was necessary for the female to be 

 concealed while sitting on the eggs. The young of both 

 sexes are coloured like their mother, the young males not 

 acquiring the black gorget until perfectly able to take care 

 of themselves. About the plumage there are some inter- 

 esting facts. The young bird moults twice before the first 

 winter. The second moult brings out the mark on the 

 throat, but it is rusty now, not black in colour; his cravat 

 is grayish and the wing bar ashy. In the spring, however, 

 a noticeable change takes place, but neither by the moulting 

 nor the coming in of plumage. The shaded edges of the 



