about the demure female, outrageously
undignified as compared with their usual behaviour. They do everything
save twirl their black moustaches!

In the mating season some birds have beauties which are ordinarily
concealed. Such is the male ruby-crowned kinglet, garbed in gray and
green, the two sexes identical, except for the scarlet touch on the crown
of the male, which, at courting time, he raises and expands. Even the iris
of some birds changes and brightens in colour at the breeding season;
while in others there appear about the base of the bill horny parts, which
in a month or two fall off. The scarlet coat of the tanager is perhaps
solely for attracting and holding the attention of the female, as before
winter every feather is shed, the new plumage being of a dull green, like
that of its mate and its young.

As mystery confronts us everywhere in nature, so we confess ourselves
baffled when we attempt to explain the most wonderful of all the
attributes of bird courtship--song. Birds have notes to call to one
another, to warn of danger, to express anger and fear; but the highest
development of their vocal efforts seems to be devoted to charming the
females. If birds have a love of music, then there must be a marvellous
diversity of taste among them, ranging all the way from the shrieking,
strident screams of the parrots and macaws to the tender pathos of the
wood pewee and the hermit thrush.

If birds have not some appreciation of sweet sounds, then we must consider
the many different songs as mere by-products, excess of vitality which
expresses itself in results, in many cases, strangely aesthetic and
harmonious. A view midway is indefinable as regards the boundaries covered
by each theory. How much of the peacock's train or of the thrush's song is
appreciated by the female? How much is by-product merely?

In these directions a great field lies open to the student and lover of
birds; but however we decide for ourselves in regard to the exact meaning
and evolution of song, and what use it subserves among the birds, we all
admit the effect and pleasure it produces in ourselves. A world without
the song of birds is greatly lacking--such is a desert, where even the
harsh croak of a raven is melody.

Perhaps the reason why the songs of birds give more lasting pleasure than
many other things is that sound is so wonderfully potent to recall days
and scenes of our past life. Like a sunset, the vision that a certain so