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semble them the nearest in size and habits; and as we possessed two such cocks in a goldfinch and a siskin (Carduelis spinus, BRISSON), we put them both into a large breeding-cage along with a hen canary. It was not a little amusing to observe the exertions of these two birds in trimming their feathers, singing at the utmost pitch of their voices, as if each were determined not to be out-sung by his rival; and more. than once, before any nest was begun, we observed them bringing her food in their bills by way of present. From the first, however, she showed a marked dislike to the goldfinch, though the finest beau of the two, being the brightest-coloured bird even of this beautiful species we ever saw; while the siskin, independently of his less gay colours, had lost his tail, and was besides quite bald, from the habit he had of

laying, and also often while she was sitting. A tame goose had chosen a hollow space at the root of the same tree to lay and hatch her young in *."

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Summer-Duck (Anas Sponsa, LINN.). Length, about nineteen inches.

Darwin would have eagerly snatched at these singular differences from its congeners, in the economy of the summer-duck, as illustrations of his doctrine of accidental habits, transmitted from individual animals to their posterity, accounting, at the same time, for the superior sharpness of its claws, from its efforts to maintain its position on the trees where it began to perch. But rejecting such fanciful expla*Wilson, Amer. Ornith, viii. 104.

number of both sexes; and yet, if either the cock or the hen be killed before breeding, the remaining bird usually finds a second mate. The cock of the mi grative species Montagu thinks never quits the place he first resorts to, but attracts the females by his song; and hence, he conceives, it is probable that such females as have not at first paired, or lost their mates by accident, continually wander about in search of another.

If we may be permitted to draw an inference from a bird in confinement, we should be disposed to question the fact of the cock of migratory birds selecting a station, and singing there till a hen was attracted. Our caged black-cap, already mentioned, appeared to be actuated by different feelings; for he continued to exhibit the migratory agitation of hopping impatiently about his cage during the night, long after the species had arrived in this country. His agitation commenced exactly on the 1st of April, though, on the same day, we heard three or four of those newly arrived singing in the gardens; and one had been observed in the neighbourhood more than a week before. It is worthy of remark, also, that he had been in song from before Christmas, which could not well have been intended to attract a mate. But what we consider most to the point, his migratory agitation did not cease till the 10th of June, and he hopped about as incessantly on the night of the 9th as he had done at the commencement on the 1st of April. Now though, from confinement being an unnatural state, we cannot reason with certainty from circumstances then occurring, yet it seems probable that our bird, if he had been at liberty, would have continued to migrate every night, and to sing, as he did, part of every day (snatching a few minutes' sleep occasionally) till he had found a mate*.

J. R.

We have a similar instance to those mentioned by Montagu, recorded by Professor Kalm. "A couple of swallows," he says, "built their nest in a stable, and the female laid eggs in the nest, and was about to brood them. Some days afterwards the people saw the female still sitting on the eggs; but the male, flying about the nest, and sometimes settling on a nail, was heard to utter a very plaintive note, which betrayed his uneasiness. On a nearer examination, the female was found dead in the nest ; and the people flung her body away. The male then went to sit upon the eggs; but after being about two hours on them, and perhaps finding the business too troublesome, he went out, and returned in the afternoon with another female, which sat upon the nest, and afterwards fed the young ones till they were able to provide for themselves *"

That it is not the cock alone, however, which is thus able to procure a second mate, appears from the remarks of White. "Among the monogamous birds," he says, "several are to be found, after pairing time, single, and of each sex ; but whether this state of celibacy is matter of choice or necessity is not so easily discoverable. When the house-sparrows deprive my martins of their nests, as soon as I cause one to be shot, the other, be it cock or hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several times following. I have known a dove-house infested by a pair of white owls, which made great havock among young pigeons. One of the owls was shot as soon as possible; but the survivor readily found a mate, and the mischief went on. After some time the new pair were both destroyed, and the annoyance ceased. Another instance, I remember, of a sportsman, whose zeal for the increase of his game being greater than his humanity, after pairing time he always shot the * Travels in America.

cock-bird of every couple of partridges upon his grounds, supposing that the rivalry of many males interrupted the breed. He used to say, that though he had widowed the same hen several times, yet he found she was still provided with a fresh paramour that did not take her away from her usual haunt *"

In opposition to this doctrine there is one instance, which has been celebrated from the earliest ages, the turtle-dove being represented as the very emblem of conjugal love and fidelity. The dark or blackcoloured turtle-dove, it is said, was employed by the Egyptians as the hieroglyphic of chaste widowhood, it being understood that when one of a pair was killed the other never joined with a second mate. "They be passing chaste," says Pliny, "and neither male nor female change their mate, but keep together one true unto the other. They live, I say, as coupled by the bond of marriage; never play they false, one by the other, but keep home still, and never visit the holes of others. They abandon not their own nests, unless they be in a state of single life, or widowhood by death of their fellow. The females are very meek and patient; they will endure and abide their im perious males, notwithstanding, otherwhiles, they be very churlish unto them, offering them wrong and hard measure, so jealous be they of the hens, and suspicious, though without any cause, for passing chaste and continent by nature they aret." The poets follow naturally in the same opinion, and hence, from Ovid and Dantet down to our own times, we meet with comparisons and allusions thence derived, as if the fact were ascertained beyond question.

The fact, however, of doves acting in this manner, so far from being correct, may be easily disproved by Nat. Hist. of Selborne, letter 34.

+ Holland's Plinie, x. 34.

Inferno, Cant. 5.

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