278 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



the roof of the manor of Ebensee, near Erfurt, there brooded for years 

 a pair of storks who, though they lived in complete harmony, were 

 never without contests, suffering perpetually from the intrusion 

 of strangers, who attempted to get possession of nest and female. 

 One spring there came upon the scene a male who far surpassed 

 all previous suitors in assertiveness and persistence, and forced the 

 paterfamilias to be always fighting, or at least to be constantly on 

 the watch. One day, wearied with his struggles, he sat upon the 

 nest apparently asleep, with his head under his wing, when sud- 

 denly the intruder swooped down upon him, transfixed him with 

 his bill, and hurled him lifeless from the roof. And the widow? 

 She did not drive the infamous assassin from her, but unhesitat- 

 ingly allowed him to fill his victim's place, and went on with her 

 brooding as if nothing had happened. 



This and the facts already mentioned are not to the credit of 

 the females, but I should like to emphasize that they are so much 

 outweighed by the evidence on the other side, that they must be 

 considered as exceptions which prove the rule. And if the females 

 should be judged apparently or actually guilty, it must not be for- 

 gotten that the males, with far more reason to be faithful than the 

 less numerous females, sometimes forget their conjugal ties. Who- 

 ever thoroughly knows pigeons, which are erroneously regarded as 

 the type of all conceivable virtues, is aware that they are far from 

 deserving the reputation which has been handed down in the 

 legends of the ancients. Their tenderness is captivating, but it is not 

 constant; their faithfulness to wife and children is extolled, but it 

 does not stand a test. Quite apart from their unfatherliness, the 

 male pigeons are only too often guilty of transgressions against 

 the inviolable laws of marriage, and not seldom employ the time 

 in which their mates are brooding in dallying with other females. 

 Drakes are even more blamable, and the male red-legged partridges 

 are no better. As soon as the ducks have settled down to brood, 

 the drakes assemble and pass the time together as best they can, 

 leaving their mates to toil, and worry, and undertake all the cares 

 for the coming generation, and only returning to the ducks, 

 perhaps not to their own mates, when the young have grown big 



