251 
THE STORMCOCK. 
to enjoy the warmth of the sun, and now engaged 
in sportive chase, unbroken-in-upon by enemies, 
whose sole endeavour is to take their lives. 
NOTES ON THE HABITS OF THE STORMCOCK, 
OR MISTLETOE THRUSH. 
" Te, dulcis conjux, te solo in littore secum, 
Te, veniente die, te, decedente, canebat.'* 
For thee, sweet mate, for thee he pour'd his lay. 
At earJy dawn, and at the close of day. 
It is a pleasing and ingenious way to account for the 
song in birds, by supposing that it is given to them 
by Nature, in order that they may enliven the 
female during the lonely task of incubation. At that 
interesting season of the year^ one might really 
imagine that the song of the male is absolutely 
uxorious ; and, in truth, it may be, for aught I know 
to the contrary. No cow ever chewed her cud more 
deliberately than I have weighed this matter in my 
own mind ; and, after all, I am not one jot the 
wiser. My speculations in April have all been 
shivered to atoms in November, and I am left in the 
midst of uncertainty. To-day^ I hear a male bird 
singing close to the bush where his female is on her 
nest ; and, five months hence, I shall hear a male 
bird sing, in apparent ecstasy, when the chilling 
season of the year peremptorily forbids the female 
to make any preparations for the nursery. Baffled 
