236 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



but a responsive sound immediately falls from her 

 devoted beak. 



Again, it may seem unlikely that there can be 

 pairing for life in species, like the chaffinch of 

 northern Europe, and, with us, of Scotland, in which 

 the sexes separate and migrate separately. Also of 

 non-gregarious species like the nightingale in which 

 the males arrive in this country several days before 

 the females. Yet I am confident that if we could 

 catch and mark a considerable number of pairs it 

 would be found that the same male and female 

 found one another and re-mated every year. 



It comes to this, that birds may pair for life, yet 

 not be all the time or all the year together, as in the 

 case of hawks, crows, owls, herons, and many others. 

 In numberless species which undoubtedly pair for 

 life the sexes keep apart during several hours each 

 day, and there is some evidence that those that 

 separate for a part of the year remain faithful. 



An incident, related by Miss Ethel Williams, 

 of Winchester, in her natural history notes con- 

 tributed to a journal in that city, bears on this point. 

 She had, among the bird pensioners in the garden 

 of her house adjoining the Cathedral green, a female 

 thrush that grew tame enough to fly into the house 

 and feed on the dining-room table. Her thrush 

 paired and bred for several seasons in the garden, 

 and the young, too, were tame and would follow 



