<.o8 The Descent of Man. Part II. 



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 tinnuncnlus), 

 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 jiammea), " 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 redstart. With respect to the latter bird (Phcenicura ruti- 

 cilia), a writer expresses much surprise how the sitting female 

 could so soon have given effectual notice that she was a widow, 

 for the species was not common in the neighbourhood. 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 not 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 during several years to shoot one of a 

 pair of starlings which built in a hole in a house at Blackheath ; 

 but thp. loss was always immediately repaired. During one 



