one morning nineteen males, and another killed by a single shot seven
birds at roost together. They then had the habit of assembling very
early in the spring at particular spots, where they could be seen in
flocks, chattering, sometimes fighting, bustling and flying about the
trees. The whole affair was evidently considered by the birds as one of
the highest importance. Shortly after the meeting they all separated,
and were then observed by Mr. Fox and others to be paired for the
season. In any district in which a species does not exist in large
numbers, great assemblages cannot, of course, be held, and the same
species may have different habits in different countries. For instance,
I have heard of only one instance, from Mr. Wedderburn, of a regular
assemblage of black game in Scotland, yet these assemblages are so well
known in Germany and Scandinavia that they have received special names.
UNPAIRED BIRDS.
From the facts now given, we may conclude that the courtship of birds
belonging to widely different groups, is often a prolonged, delicate,
and troublesome affair. There is even reason to suspect, improbable as
this will at first appear, that some males and females of the same
species, inhabiting the same district, do not always please each other,
and consequently do not pair. Many accounts have been published of
either the male or female of a pair having been shot, and quickly
replaced by another. This has been observed more frequently with the
magpie than with any other bird, owing perhaps to its conspicuous
appearance and nest. The illustrious Jenner states that in Wiltshire
one of a pair was daily shot no less than seven times successively,
but all to no purpose, for the remaining magpie soon found another
mate ; and the last pair reared their young. A new partner is generally
found on the succeeding day; but Mr. Thompson gives the case of one
being replaced on the evening of the same day. Even after the eggs are
hatched, if one of the old birds is destroyed a mate will often be
found; this occurred after an interval of two days, in a case recently
observed by one of Sir J. Lubbock s keepers. (5. On magpies, Jenner, in
Philosophical Transactions, 1824, p. 21. Macgillivray, Hist. British
Birds, vol. i. p. 570. Thompson, in Annals and Magazine of Natural
History, vol. viii. 1842, p. 494.) The first and most obvious
conjecture is that male magpies must be much more numerous than
females; and that in the above cases, as well as in many others which
could be given, the males alone had been killed. This apparently holds
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