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Updated: June 26, 2025
On revisiting Stonehenge after an interval of some years I looked for my sparrows and failed to find them. It was at the breeding-season, when they would have been there had they still existed. No doubt the little colony had been extirpated by a sparrow-hawk or by the human guardians of "The Stones," as the temple is called by the natives. It remains to tell of my latest visit to "The Stones."
Blyth informs me, with an exactly similar series of facts, as in the Portax picta, namely, in the male periodically changing colour during the breeding-season, in the effects of emasculation on this change, and in the young of both sexes being indistinguishable from each other. On the Ant. niger, see 'Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850, p. 133.
Near Rio Janeiro I used often to sit in the evening to listen to a number of little Hylae, perched on blades of grass close to the water, which sent forth sweet chirping notes in harmony. The various sounds are emitted chiefly by the males during the breeding-season, as in the case of the croaking of our common frog. In some genera the males alone are provided with sacs which open into the larynx.
I do not think it breeds at present in any of the Islands, as I have not seen it anywhere about in the breeding-season since 1866, when I saw a pair near the cliffs on the south-end of the Island in June; but as the Raven is a very early breeder, these may have only been wanderers.
From the causes just specified the two sexes can hardly fail to differ somewhat in constitution, at least during the breeding-season; and, although they may be subjected to exactly the same conditions, they will tend to vary in a different manner. If such variations are of no service to either sex, they will not be accumulated and increased by sexual or natural selection.
With animals in a state of nature, innumerable instances occur of characters appearing periodically at different seasons. We see this in the horns of the stag, and in the fur of Artic animals which becomes thick and white during the winter. Many birds acquire bright colours and other decorations during the breeding-season alone. 'Novae species Quadrupedum e Glirium ordine, 1778, p. 7.
The young of the Ardea asha are white, the adults being dark slate-coloured; and not only the young, but the adults in their winter plumage, of the allied Buphus coromandus are white, this colour changing into a rich golden-buff during the breeding-season.
At other times of year than the breeding-season, the Storm Petrel can only be considered an occasional storm-driven visitant to the Islands. It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as occurring in Alderney, Sark, Jethou, and Herm. With this bird ends my list of the Birds of Guernsey and the neighbouring Islands.
It is notorious how desperately male seals fight, both with their teeth and claws, during the breeding-season; and their hides are likewise often covered with scars. Male sperm-whales are very jealous at this season; and in their battles "they often lock their jaws together, and turn on their sides and twist about"; so that their lower jaws often become distorted.
Gunther informs me that he has several times found an unfortunate female toad dead and smothered from having been so closely embraced by three or four males. Frogs have been observed by Professor Hoffman in Giessen fighting all day long during the breeding-season, and with so much violence that one had its body ripped open.
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