252 Mr. J. H. Guniey on the [Ibis, 



marvel *. It is the same with Carrion Crows. They easily 

 get fresh mates when widowed ; for instance, one of a pair 

 was five times shot from the nest in Dumfriesshire before 

 the last survivor deserted the familiar tree f. 



Similar cases of broken partnerships replaced with notice- 

 able — and in some cases iniaccountable — celerity are remarked 

 of several other birds — viz., of the Merlin (Falco cesalon) 

 by Henry Seebohm J, and of F. peregrinus by Knox §, 

 Gladstone II, and Walpole-Bond H, and of the Hobby by 

 Stevenson **. 



But the most curious case of the kind was one com- 

 municated to the ' Scotsman ' of 14 February, 1914. 

 During the previous summer a pair of Peregrine Falcons 

 had nested at Strathmore in Sutherland. The stalker of the 

 beat shot the male, but in a day or two his place was taken, 

 and the stalker trapped another male. It was not long- 

 before a third appeared, and this time the stalker killed 

 them both. It was now concluded that there was an end 

 to the famil}'^, but not so. Two more Peregrines soon came 

 on the scene, and successfully hatched and brought up 

 their young in the same eyrie where the first pair had 

 been killed. 



All these cases are very curious, and different enquirers 

 will draw different inferences from them, any one of which 

 may be the right one. It must not be forgotten that in 

 many Moths, and in other insects as well, the attraction 

 which females exercise over the males has long been 

 admitted, and the very extended flights they are known to 

 take in consequence. 



* 'Birds of Northumberland,' p. 203, 



t H. S. Gladstone in litt. 



X 'History of British Birds,' i. p. 36, 



§ ' Ornithological Eambles in Sussex,' p. 106. 



II ' Birds of Dumfriesshire,' p. 214. 



IT ' Rarer British Birds,' p. UO. 



«* ' Birds of Norfolk,' i. p. 18. 





