THE BIRD STUDY BOOK 



Unmated Birds. — ^A little reflection will make the 

 student realize the fact that out in the fields and 

 woods, in the swamps and on the mountains, on the 

 beaches, as well as far away on the ocean, there are 

 many birds that are not mated. Among them are 

 widows and widowers, heartfree spinsters and pining 

 bachelors. Just what per cent, of the bird life is 

 unmated in any one season it would, of course, be 

 impossible to tell. The information which the writer 

 has gathered by a careful census of a certain species 

 in a given limited territory enabled him to deter- 

 mine that in this particular case only about three- 

 fifths of the individuals are mated any one sea- 

 son. 



Polygamy Among Birds. — ^As with mankind, some 

 races have well-developed tendencies toward polyg- 

 amy. In the warmer regions of the United States 

 there dwells a great, splendid, glossy Blackbird, the 

 Boat-tailed Grackle. The nest of this bird is a 

 wonderfully woven structure of water plants and 

 grasses and is usually built in a bush growing in the 

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