William Henry Mousley

“ Of the dozens of warblers' nests that I have found within a very short distance of the "singing tree" or trees of the male, it is unnecessary to go into details, for all I think clearly show, that in this family if in no other, the males are the ones that without doubt are instrumental in determining the general site of the nest. Likewise in other families, I could quote innumerable instances which all seem to confirm the view I have taken up regarding the part exercised by the male in the selection of the general nesting site. ”

“ In the first place, I think it may be rightly assumed, that in the large majority of cases it is the female who generally does most, if not all of the construction work, in which case it seems reasonable enough to suppose that, being the most adept builder, she should naturally be the most likely one to know the exact requirements her particular nest demanded. The subject, however, is not an easy one to handle by any means, for in many cases the male is an active worker, and may know equally well those particular requirements. ”

“ To this question I replied that in my experience if a male bird could be found singing constantly in the same tree or trees, the nest would generally be found within twenty yards of the spot, in support of which I have prepared the following table, from which the average distance of the rest from the 'singing tree' or observation post of the male, for a number of birds works out at rather less than twenty yards, or to be precise seventeen yards. ”

“ There the female hatches out her eggs, and afterwards attends and protects the young without any assistance from the male whatsoever. As regards the Red-winged Blackbirds and Bobolinks, I can only state that so far as my experience goes I have never seen the males of either species engaged in any nest building, nor have I been able to detect any behaviour on their part, which might be construed as assisting the females in selecting a suitable spot for the nest. ”

“ With mine, however, the case has been different, for the longer I have studied the ways of the male birds at nesting time, the more I have been able to perfect my system, and instead of the birds beating me, I am gradually getting the better of them, although to do so I have had to display more than the patience of Job, and have often had to remain with them for hours at a time before obtaining their secret. ”

“ So beautifully do they seem to blend with their surroundings that they seem to be part and parcel of them, and it is no easy matter sometimes to detect a nest, although comparatively in an exposed position as this one was, just five-thirty P.M. when I found it, and within the magic circle too, it being exactly sixteen yards from the 'singing tree' of the male, which I first noticed at one-thirty P.M., so that I had spent exactly four hours with this bird, during which time he sang almost continuously, with only short intervals of rest in between. ”

“ First one bird goes in and inspects a hole, then the other proceeds to do the same thing, and on coming out it often appears as though a weighing up of the pros and cons were taking place, but unless one is able to follow them about until the final hole is decided upon, it seems almost impossible to form any adequate idea which sex eventually decides the matter. ”

“ Of course there are red letter days when by accident one sees a female with building material fly direct to the nesting site, but these are generally few and far between, and in my experience one hardly ever sees the females until the nests are discovered. ”

“ Immediately on arrival the males take up their stations, the first named on the marsh, (where they are usually found early in the morning and late in the afternoon, the rest of the day being spent in the adjacent stubble fields) and the latter on certain meadows just in front of my house, and there later on, as well as on the marsh in the case of the Red-winged Blackbirds, will the nests be surely found, thus clearly indicating. ”

“ Do not imagine however, kind reader, that in that one morning I had found the perfect system by which all gamblers hope some day or other to 'break the bank.' More often than not the bank breaks the gamblers, and no system seems to hold good for long. ”

“ I would suggest they come for the purpose of selecting some area of ground over which they can hold sway, in other words they nominally select the general nesting site, to which the females may come either accidentally, or as is most probably the case (especially with the warblers) , by hearing the males singing from their favourite trees or other posts, which also act as look-out stations, from which they can sally forth and drive all other interlopers away. ”

“ I think judging from my own experience, and that of others, it may safely be assumed that the males of this most interesting family, in the majority of cases, have little if anything to do with the actual selection of the final spot on which the nest shall rest, the females in nearly all cases performing this duty as well as that of constructing the nest. ”

“ The Blackburnian is certainly a great singer, or at least I should say persistent one, for the song cannot by any stretch of the imagination be said to be great. During my long acquaintance with this one he sang off and on for most of the time, and I have noticed the same thing to occur with others that I have watched for shorter periods. The next contained a full set of four eggs on June 18. ”

“ In these two instances it would appear as though the final selection was entirely a mutual one, which might have been expected, seeing that both sexes take part in the construction of the nest, the same as the Bluebirds. Now in the case of a large majority of the warblers this is not so, or at least, it has not been apparent in those which have come under my observation, for the males rarely seem to take any very active part or interest, either in the construction or exact location of the nest. ”

“ Now this at first sight may seem contrary to all pre-conceived ideas on the subject, for I believe we have all come, in a hazy kind of way, to look upon the female as the principal actor in this site selecting business, whereas I would suggest that it is really the male who stands out as the dominant figure. ”

“ Surely the male had no voice in selecting that site (although he undoubtedly did the 'singing tree,' as he had frequented it often previous to any rest being started in the spruce) , invisible as it was to him whilst singing! But there, that opens up another interesting problem, and I must get back to the work in hand. After watching the male Bay-breast for some time. ”

“ This may partly account for the fact that when birds are robbed of their first, second, or even third set of eggs, they invariably build another nest in close proximity to the old one, as pointed out in my paper "A Study of Subsequent Nestings." ”

“ This being so, I have come to the conclusion that the females of both species, being the constructors of the nests, are likewise the selectors of the exact spots for them to rest in, although these be it remembered have always been on the ground which the male birds had selected to congregate and sing upon long before the arrival of the females. ”