WAYS OF NATURE 
doubt does play a part in such matters. It may well 
be doubted if birds are musical connoisseurs, or 
have anything like human appreciation of their own 
or of each other’s songs. My reason for thinking so 
is this: I have heard a bobolink with an instrument 
so defective that its song was broken and inarticu- 
late in parts, and yet it sang with as much apparent 
joy and abandon as any of its fellows. I have also 
heard a hermit thrush with a similar defect or 
impediment that appeared to sing entirely to its 
own satisfaction. It would be very interesting to 
know if these poor singers found mates as readily 
as their more gifted brothers. If they did, the 
Darwinian theory of “sexual selection” in such 
matters, according to which the finer songster would 
carry off the female, would fall to the ground. Yet 
it is certain that it is during the mating and breeding 
season that these “song combats” occur, and the 
favor of the female would seem to be the matter in 
dispute. Whether or not it be expressive of actual 
jealousy or rivalry, we have no other words to apply 
to it. 
A good deal of light is thrown upon the ways of 
nature as seen in the lives of our solitary wasps, so 
skillfully and charmingly depicted by George W. 
Peckham and his wife in their work on those insects. 
So whimsical, so fickle, so forgetful, so fussy, so 
wise, and yet so foolish, as these little people are! 
such victims of routine and yet so individual, such 
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