LEAF AND TENDRIL 



if anything like divorce, or unfaithfulness, or free 

 love, ever takes place among the monogamous 

 birds — probably not. The riot of the breeding 

 instinct in the males confines itself to gay plumes, 

 or songs, or grotesque antics, while the seriousness 

 and preoccupation of the female, I doubt not, 

 would prove an effectual warning to any gay Lo- 

 thario among her neighbors, if such there happened 

 to be. 



I am convinced that birds have a sense of home, 

 or something analogous to it, and that they return 

 year after year to the same localities to nest. The 

 few cases where I have been able to identify the 

 particular sparrow or robin or bluebird confirm 

 me in this belief. 



Hermits among the birds or beasts are probably 

 very rare, and I doubt if voluntary seclusion ever 

 occurs. Sometimes an old male, vanquished and 

 in a measure disabled by his younger rivals, may 

 be driven out of the herd or pack and compelled 

 to spend the remainder of his days in comparative 

 solitude. Or an old eagle that has lost its mate 

 may spend its days henceforth alone. The birds of 

 prey, like the animals of prey, and like prowlers and 

 bloodsuckers generally, are solitary in their habits. 



The feeling of hostility towards strangers that 

 all animals manifest in varying degrees, how dis- 

 tinctly we can trace it up through the savage races 

 and through the lower orders of our social aggre- 

 138 



