116 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



from the nest. It is a curious fact that male birds 

 seem to be somewhat displeased with the female 

 while she is sitting, and are more than usually vocifer- 

 ous. 



After the young brood is hatched, the attention of the 

 male bird is occupied with the care of his offspring, 

 though he is far less assiduous in his parental duties 

 than the female ; and, for a season he becomes some- 

 what silent, until a second incubation commences. 

 But those species that rear only one brood in a season, 

 become entirely silent after the young birds are fledged 

 and have left the nest. Should they rear another brood, 

 the male becomes once more as vocal as ever while his 

 mate is sitting the second time. He does the same, if 

 he happens to lose his mate, when he becomes again 

 very tuneful and vociferous, uttering his call-notes 

 loudly for several days, and finally changing them into 

 song. Hence it would seem that the song of the bird 

 proceeds from a certain degree of discontent, arising 

 first, from his want of a mate, and secondly, from his 

 uneasiness on account of her absence while sitting 

 upon her eggs. The buoyancy of spirits produced by 

 the delightfulness of the season, and the full supply of 

 his physical wants, is joined with the pains of absence 

 which he is striving to allay. I have often thought that 

 the almost uninterrupted song of caged birds proves 

 their singing to be no certain evidence of happiness, 

 and that it chiefly arises from a desire to entice a com- 

 panion into their own little prison. It is well known 

 that when an old bird from our own fields is caught 

 and caged, he will continue his tunefulness long after 

 all others of the same species, who enjoy their freedom, 

 have become silent. The bobolink, in a state of free- 

 dom, seldom sings after the middle of July ; but if one 



