LOVE AND COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS. 277 



bird-wedlock, and were as inseparable as in the thicket at home, 

 doing all and enduring all in common. Pairs of booted eagles were 

 easily recognizable as mates even when they travelled or took 

 shelter in company with others of their species; the whistling 

 swans which I saw on the Menzaleh Lake in Egypt appeared in 

 pairs and flew away again in pairs; all the other united pairs 

 which I observed on my way illustrated the same habit. That they 

 share misfortunes as well as pleasures together, I learned from 

 a pair of storks I observed on a pool in South Nubia, to whom my 

 attention was attracted because they were there at a time long after 

 all others of their species had sought a refuge in the interior of 

 Africa. To discover the cause of this prolonged stay I had them 

 shot, and I found that the female had a broken wing which pre- 

 vented her travelling farther, and that the male, himself thoroughly 

 sound, had remained, for love of her, in a region where all the con- 

 ditions of comfortable wintering were awanting. The close and 

 faithful bond between pairing birds is severed only by death. 



This is the rule, but it is subject to exceptions. Even among 

 monogamous birds unfaithfulness occurs sometimes, though rarely. 

 Firmly as the females are wont to keep faith with their mates, and 

 little as they are inclined to cast furtive glances at other males, or 

 even to accept them as friends when they obtrude themselves, the 

 specially brilliant gifts of some stranger may exercise a seductive 

 influence. A master-singer who far surpasses the husband in song, 

 an eagle who excels in all or at least in many respects the one 

 selected by a female, may seriously disturb the happiness of a night- 

 ingale or eagle marriage, may perhaps even entice the female away 

 from her rightful spouse. This is evidenced by the bachelors who 

 fly about before and during the brooding-time, intruding audaciously 

 into the domain of a wedded pair and boldly sueing for the favour 

 of the female, and by the jealous fights which begin at once between 

 the lawful husband and the intruder, and which are usually fought 

 out without the aid of the female. The conduct of a suddenly 

 widowed female, who not only immediately consoles herself by 

 pairing again, but sometimes even accepts the assassin of her first 

 mate, points, at least to a certain extent, in the same direction. On 



