124 SPRING. 



should have, a mixture of reason even in those ope- 

 rations which most nearly resemble those of the other 

 animals, as a model and an explanation of these, that 

 little can be deduced from any thing that they have 

 said upon the subject. It has never been clearly made 

 out that there is a principle of election. In those ani- 

 mals where a single pair conjoin their fortunes for the 

 season, and, like the larks, ^rear more than one brood, 

 we know nothing about the quantity of speculation that 

 may precede their union, and whether the feathered 

 belles are, like romantic maidens, won by glossy 

 plumes and glozing songs, or, like the daughters of 

 thrift, look out for a male who will be industrious, and 

 take his full share of the cares of the family. If we re- 

 member rightly, it is Hannah More who attributes the 

 greater part of human match-making to " juxta-po- 

 sition," and if she had taken time as well as place into 

 the account, she would not, perhaps, have been wide of 

 the truth ; and the same circumstances may operate 

 more completely among the animals ; but still the song 

 has an effect, though what effect has not yet been 

 ascertained. Still, though we have not been able to 

 speculate about the effect of the song, we know some- 

 thing of its cause, when the animals are in a perfectly 

 natural state, and none are more so than the birds. 

 It is a particular temperature and feeling of the air, 

 and when the air is in the proper state, the time of the 

 year is of inferior moment. The woodlark will sing on 

 the very shortest day, even though the ground is 

 frozen, if the sun shine out with the requisite warmth 

 at mid- day; and it has been ascertained that the males 

 of some of those birds that visit us early in the breed- 



