462 THE DESCENT OF MAN, 



flocks, chattering, sometimes fighting, bustling and flying 

 about the trees. The whole affair was evidently consid- 

 ered by the birds as one of the highest importance. 

 Shortly after the meeting they all separated, and were then 

 observed by Mr. Fox and others to be paired for the 

 season. In any district in which a species does not exist in 

 large numbers great assemblages cannot, of course, be 

 held, and the same species may have different habits in dif- 

 ferent countries. For example, I have heard of only one 

 instance, from Mr. Wedderburn, of a regular assemblage 

 of black game in Scotland, yet these assemblages are so 

 well known in Uermany and Scandinavia that they have 

 received special names. 



Unpaired Birds. From the facts now given, we may 

 conclude that the courtship of birds belonging to widely 

 different groups is often a prolonged, delicate, and trouble- 

 some affair. There is even reason to suspect, improbable as 

 this will at first appear, that some males and females of the 

 same species, inhabiting the same district, do not always 

 please each other, and consequently do not pair. Many 

 accounts have been published of either the male or female 

 of a pair having been shot and quickly replaced by 

 another. This has been observed more frequently with 

 the magpie than with any other bird, owing, perhaps, 

 to its conspicuous appearance and nest. The illustrious 

 Jenner states that in Wiltshire one of a pair was daily shot 

 no less than seven times successively, " but all to no pur- 

 pose, for the remaining magpie soon found another mate;" 

 and the last pair reared their young. A new partner is 

 generally found on the succeeding day ; but Mr. Thomp- 

 son gives the case of one being replaced on the 

 evening of the same day. Even after the eggs are hatched, 

 if one of the old birds is destroyed a mate will often be 

 found ; this occurred after an interval of two days in a case 

 recently observed by one of Sir J. Lubbock^s keepers.* 

 The first and most obvious conjecture is that male magpies 

 must be much more numerous than females; and that in the 

 above cases, as well as in many others which could be given, 

 the males alone had been killed. This apparently holds 



*0n magpies, Jenner, in "Phil. Transact.," 1824, p. 21. Macgil- 

 livray, "Hist. British Birds," vol. i, p. 570. Thompson, in "Annals 

 and Mag. of Nat. Hist.," vol. vUi, 1842, p. 494. 



