of one of a pair would leave the other free and single; and there is
reason to believe that female birds during the breeding-season are
especially liable to premature death. Again, birds which have had their
nests destroyed, or barren pairs, or retarded individuals, would easily
be induced to desert their mates, and would probably be glad to take
what share they could of the pleasures and duties of rearing offspring
although not their own. (7. See White ( Nat. Hist. of Selborne, 1825,
vol. i. p. 140) on the existence, early in the season, of small coveys
of male partridges, of which fact I have heard other instances. See
Jenner, on the retarded state of the generative organs in certain
birds, in Phil. Transact. 1824. In regard to birds living in
triplets, I owe to Mr. Jenner Weir the cases of the starlings and
parrots, and to Mr. Fox, of partridges; on carrion-crows, see the
Field, 1868, p. 415. On various male birds singing after the proper
period, see Rev. L. Jenyns, Observations in Natural History, 1846, p.
87.) Such contingencies as these probably explain most of the foregoing
cases. (8. The following case has been given ( The Times, Aug. 6,
1868) by the Rev. F.O. Morris, on the authority of the Hon. and Rev.
O.W. Forester. The gamekeeper here found a hawk s nest this year, with
five young ones on it. He took four and killed them, but left one with
its wings clipped as a decoy to destroy the old ones by. They were both
shot next day, in the act of feeding the young one, and the keeper
thought it was done with. The next day he came again and found two
other charitable hawks, who had come with an adopted feeling to succour
the orphan. These two he killed, and then left the nest. On returning
afterwards he found two more charitable individuals on the same errand
of mercy. One of these he killed; the other he also shot, but could not
find. No more came on the like fruitless errand. ) Nevertheless, it is
a strange fact that within the same district, during the height of the
breeding-season, there should be so many males and females always ready
to repair the loss of a mated bird. Why do not such spare birds
immediately pair together? Have we not some reason to suspect, and the
suspicion has occurred to Mr. Jenner Weir, that as the courtship of
birds appears to be in many cases prolonged and tedious, so it
occasionally happens that certain males and females do not succeed,
during the proper season, in exciting each other s love, and
consequently do not pair? This suspicion will appear somewhat less
improbable after we have seen what strong antipathies and preferences
female birds occasionally evince towards particular males.
431