464 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



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 {Phoenicura ruticilla), 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 neighborhood. Mr. Jenner 

 AVeir has mentioned to me a nearly similar case; at Blackheath 

 he never sees or hears the note of the wild bulltinch, 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 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; nevertheless, after all this destruction, a brood was 

 reared.* 



These facts well deserve attention. How is it that there 

 are birds enough ready to replace immediately a lost -mate 

 of either sex? Magpies, jays, carrion-crows, partridges, 

 and some other birds are always seen during the spring in 

 pairs, and never by themselves; and these offer at first sight 

 the most perplexing cases. But birds of the same sex, 

 although of course not truly paired, sometimes live in pairs 

 or in small parties, as is known to be the case with pigeons 

 and partridges. Birds also sometimes live in triplets, as 

 has been observed with starlings, carrion-crows, parrots 

 and partridges. With partridges two females have been 



* On the peregrine falcon, see Thompson, "Nat. Hist, of Ireland: 

 Birds," vol. i, 1849, p. 39. On owls, sparrows and partridges, see 

 White, " Nat. Hist, of Selborne," edit, of 1825, vol. i, p. 139. On 

 the Phoenicura, see Loudon's " Mag. of Nat. Hist.," vol. vii, 1834, p. 

 345. Brehm (" Thierleben," B. iv, s. 991) also alludes to cases of 

 birds thrice mate<J during the same daj^. 



