good in some instances, for the gamekeepers in Delamere Forest assured
Mr. Fox that the magpies and carrion-crows which they formerly killed
in succession in large numbers near their nests, were all males; and
they accounted for this fact by the males being easily killed whilst
bringing food to the sitting females. Macgillivray, however, gives, on
the authority of an excellent observer, an instance of three magpies
successively killed on the same nest, which were all females; and
another case of six magpies successively killed whilst sitting on the
same eggs, which renders it probable that most of them were females;
though, as I hear from Mr. Fox, the male will sit on the eggs when the
female is killed.
Sir J. Lubbock s gamekeeper has repeatedly shot, but how often he could
not say, one of a pair of jays (Garrulus glandarius), and has never
failed shortly afterwards to find the survivor re-matched. Mr. Fox, Mr.
F. Bond, and others have shot one of a pair of carrion-crows (Corvus
corone), but the nest was soon again tenanted by a pair. These birds
are rather common; but the peregrine-falcon (Falco peregrinus) is rare,
yet Mr. Thompson states that in Ireland if either an old male or
female be killed in the breeding-season (not an uncommon circumstance),
another mate is found within a very few days, so that the eyries,
notwithstanding such casualties, are sure to turn out their complement
of young. Mr. Jenner Weir has known the same thing with the
peregrine-falcons at Beachy Head. The same observer informs me that
three kestrels (Falco tinnunculus), all males, were killed one after
the other whilst attending the same nest; two of these were in mature
plumage, but the third was in the plumage of the previous year. Even
with the rare golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Mr. Birkbeck was
assured by a trustworthy gamekeeper in Scotland, that if one is killed,
another is soon found. So with the white owl (Strix flammea), the
survivor readily found a mate, and the mischief went on.
White of Selborne, who gives the case of the owl, adds that he knew a
man, who from believing that partridges when paired were disturbed by
the males fighting, used to shoot them; and though he had widowed the
same female several times, she always soon found a fresh partner. This
same naturalist ordered the sparrows, which deprived the house-martins
of their nests, to be shot; but the one which was left, be it cock or
hen, presently procured a mate, and so for several times following. I
could add analogous cases relating to the chaffinch, nightingale, and
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