BIRDS. 463 



good in some instances, for the gamekeepers 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 being easily killed while bringing food to 

 the sitting females. Macgillivray, however, gives, on the 

 authority of an excellent observer, an instance of three mag- 

 pies successively killed on the same nest, which were all 

 females: and another case of six magpies successively killed 

 while sitting on the same eggs, which renders it probable 

 that most of them were females; though, as I hear from 

 Mr. Fox, the male will sit on the eggs when the female is 

 killed. 



Sir J. Lubbock^'s gamekeeper has repeatedly shot, but 

 how often he could not say, one of a pair of jays ( Garruhis 

 glandarius), and has never failed shortly afterward to find 

 the survivor rematched. 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 pere- 

 grmus) 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, not- 

 withstanding 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 

 tinnunculus), all males, were killed, one after the other, 

 while 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 (Aqiiila 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 fiammea) " t\iQ 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 b^ shot^ but the one which 



