Chap. XIV.] UNPAIRED BIRDS. 101 



vivor 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 par- 

 tridges when paired were disturbed by the males fighting, 

 used to shoot them; and, though he had widowed the 

 same female several times, she was always soon provided 

 with 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 redstart. With respect to the 

 latter bird ( Phamicura ruticilla), the writer remarks that 

 it was by no means common in the neighborhood, and he 

 expresses much surprise how the sitting female could so 

 soon give effectual notice that she was a widow. Mr. 

 Jenner Weir has mentioned to me a nearly similar case : 

 at Blackheath he never sees or hears the note of the wild 

 bullfinch, yet when one of his caged males has died, a 

 wild one in the course of a few days has generally come 

 and perched near the widowed female, whose call-note is 

 far from loud. I will give only one other fact, on the 

 authority of this same observer; one of a pair of starlings 

 (Sturnus vulgaris) was shot in the morning ; by noon a 

 new mate was found ; this was again shot, but before 

 night the pair was complete; so that the disconsolate 

 widow or widower was thrice consoled during the same 

 day. Mr. Engleheart also informs me that he used dur- 

 ing several years to shoot one of a pair of starlings which 

 built in a hole in a house at Blackheath ; but the loss was 

 always immediately repaired. During one season he 

 kept an account and found that he had shot thirty-five 

 birds from the same nest ; these consisted of both males 

 and females, but in what proportion he could not say • 



