306 THE PRINCIPLES OF Part II. 



BIKDS. 



With respect to the Fowl, I have received only one account, 

 namely, that out of 1001 chickens of a highly-bred stock of Cochins, 

 reared during eight years by Mr. Stretch, 487 proved males and 514 

 females : i. e. as 94'7 to 100. In regard to domestic pigeons there 

 is good evidence that the males are produced in excess, or that their 

 lives are longer; for these birds invariably pair, and single males, 

 as Mr. Tegetmeier informs me, can always be purchased cheaper 

 than females. Usually the two birds reared from the two eggs 

 laid in the same nest consist of a male and female ; but Mr. Harrison 

 Weir, who has been so large a breeder, says that he has often bred 

 two cocks from the same nest, and seldom two hens ; moreover the 

 hen is generally the weaker of the two, and more liable to perish. 



With respect to birds in a state of nature, Mr. Gould and others 44 

 are convinced that the males are generally the more numerous; and 

 as the young males of many species resemble the females, the latter 

 would naturally appear to be the most numerous. Large numbers 

 of pheasants are reared by Mr. Baker of Leadenhall from eggs laid 

 by wild birds, and he informs Mr. Jenner Weir that four or five 

 males to one female are generally produced. An experienced ob- 

 server remarks 45 that in Scandinavia the broods of the capercailzie 

 and black-cock contain more males than females; and that with the 

 Dal-ripa (a kind of ptarmigan) more males than females attend the 

 hks or places of courtship ; but this latter circumstance is accounted 

 for by some observers by a greater number of hen birds being killed 

 by vermin. From various facts given by White of Selborne, 46 it 

 seems clear that the males of the partridge must be in considerable 

 excess in the south of England ; and I have been assured that this 

 is the case in Scotland. Mr. Weir on enquiring from the dealers 

 who receive at certain seasons large numbers of ruffs (Machetes 

 puynax) was told that the males are much the most numerous. 

 This same naturalist has also enquired for me from the bird- 

 catchers, who annually catch an astonishing number of various small 

 species alive for the London market, and he was unhesitatingly 

 answered by an old and trustworthy man, that with the chaffinch 

 the males are in large excess ; he thought as high as 2 males to 



41 Brehm (' Illust. Thievleben,' B. iv. s. 990) comes to the same con- 

 clusion. 



45 On the authority of L. Lloyd, 'Game Birds of Sweden,' 1867, p. 12, 

 132. 



4,5 'Nat. Hist, of Selbourne,' letter xxix. edit, of 1825, vol. i. p. 139. 



