100 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. [Part II. 



game-keepers 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 be- 

 ing easily killed while bringing food to the sitting females. 

 Macgillivray, however, gives, <on the authority of an ex- 

 cellent observer, an instance of three magpies successively 

 killed on the same nest, which were all females ; and an- 

 other case of six magpies successively killed while sitting 

 on the same eggs, which renders it probable that most of 

 them were females, though the male will sit on the eggs, 

 as I hear from Mr. Fox, when the female is killed. 



Sir J. Lubbock's game-keeper has repeatedly shot, but 

 how many times he could not say, one of a pair of jays 

 (Gamtlus glandarius), and has never failed shortly after- 

 ward to find the survivor rematched. The Rev. W. D. 

 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 com- 

 mon ; but the peregrine falcon {Falco peregrimis) 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 to occur with 

 the peregrine falcons at Beach y Head. The same observer 

 informs me that three kestrels, all males [Falco tinnuncu- 

 lus), were killed one after the other while attending the 

 same nest ; two of these were in mature plumage, and the 

 third in the plumage of the previous year. Even with the 

 rare golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Mr. Birkbeck was 

 assured by a trustworthy game-keeper»in Scotland, that if 

 one is killed, another is soon found. So with the white 

 ovfl^Strixjlammea), it has been observed that " the sur- 



