HOW BIRDS MAKE LOVE 



Some romantic episodes in the life of a Bird 

 By OXLEY GRABHAM, M.A. 



DURING the month of February 

 a few early breeders amongst 

 birds, such as the Heron and 

 the Raven, will be taking their yearly 

 load of domestic duties upon their shoul- 

 ders. And first let me say that some 

 birds are very matter-of-fact about it. 

 The sexes sometimes pair off with each 

 other with little or none of what may be 

 called the preliminaries of love-making; 

 whilst others, chiefly in the case of the 

 male bird, go through all sorts of extra- 

 ordinary antics, many of them decidedly 

 grotesque, to attract the attention of the 

 female. A third section apparently follow 

 out the old plan prevalent among our 

 noble selves, in olden days, of marriage 

 by capture — and certain birds having 

 fought a series of duels amongst them- 

 selves for the object of their affections, 

 the conqueror quietly takes possession 

 of his mate, whilst his defeated rivals 

 have to sue elsewhere, and in all proba- 

 bility have to go through the same sort 

 of battles over again, until in time they 

 are all provided with a spouse. 



Like the human race, again, some birds 

 are polygamous, having many wives ; 

 whilst others are strictly limited to one, 

 and remain perfectly faithful to her. 

 Some species are generally believed to 

 pair for life — and I believe that this 

 is true. Others make a contract that 

 lasts for one season, and after that they 

 appear to consider themselves perfectly 

 free to choose elsewhere ; whilst others, 

 again, either pair for two or three seasons, 

 or else choose a fresh mate each returning 

 spring. 



It is a very curious tiling that whereas 

 amongst the genus homo it is the lady 

 tliat is most brilliantly arrayed, enhancing 

 her charms with jewels and raiment of 

 many hues, amongst birds it is almost 



invariably the case that the female is 

 very plainly and soberly attired, whilst 

 the male is often a magnificent creature, 

 radiant with all the colours of the rainbow, 

 and putting on for a season crests, tufts 

 of peculiar feathers, and various other 

 appendages, which vanish when the 

 breeding season is over. There are ex- 

 ceptions to the rule that the male is 

 the most handsomely plumaged amongst 

 the birds of our own country — such as the 

 Dotterel, one of the most beautiful of 

 the Plover kind, which unfortunately 

 is rapidly approaching extinction in Great 

 Britain. In nearly every other instance, 

 however, it is the male bird who is by far 

 the handsomer ; and of course a very good 

 reason can be given for this most wise 

 provision of Nature : namely, that it is, 

 as a rule, the hen bird which does most 

 of the sitting upon and hatching out the 

 eggs, at which most important period 

 for the life of the future family her 

 sober, dull-coloured plumage harmonises 

 so beautifully with her surroundings that, 

 save to a practised eye, she is most difiicult 

 to detect. 



Were the male bird to take upon him- 

 self these duties entirely — he often assists 

 in a most praiseworthy fashion — there 

 would be far more chance of his being 

 discovered by marauding enemies — 

 whether possessing two or four legs — and 

 of being destroyed himself, along with the 

 eggs he was incubating. 



Many birds are most polite and assid- 

 uous in their attentions to their mates. 

 A very well known instance of this may 

 be seen any day in our farmyards — 

 for it will there be noticed, when the 

 poultry is fed, that the male bird will 

 often never attempt to j^ck up any of the 

 corn or dainty morsels thrown about 

 him until he has called his hens round 



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