BIRDS’—NESTS 101 
been displayed by the original parent. When dan- 
ger was nigh he was seen afar off, sailing around in 
placid unconcern. 
It is generally known that when either the wild 
turkey or domestic turkey begins to lay, and after- 
wards to sit and rear the brood, she secludes herself 
from the male, who then, very sensibly, herds with 
others of his sex, and betakes himself to haunts of 
his own till male and female, old and young, meet 
again on common ground, late in the fall. But rob 
the sitting bird of her eggs, or destroy her tender 
young, and she immediately sets out in quest of a 
male, who is no laggard when he hears her call, 
The same is true of ducks and other aquatic fowls. 
The propagating instinct is strong, and surmounts 
all ordinary difficulties. No doubt the widowhood 
I had caused in the case of the woodpeckers was of 
short duration, and chance brought, or the widow 
drummed up, some forlorn male, who was not dis- 
mayed by the prospect of having a large family of 
half-grown birds on his hands at the outset. 
I have seen a fine cock robin paying assiduous? 
addresses to a female bird as late as the middle of | 
July; and I have no doubt that his intentions were ' 
honorable. I watched the pair for half an hour. 
The hen, I took it, was in the market for the second 
time that season; but the cock, from his bright, 
unfaded plumage, looked like a new arrival. The 
hen resented every advance of the male. In vain 
he strutted around her and displayed his fine fea- 
thers; every now and then she would make at him 
1 
