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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