104 THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



or hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several times 

 following. 



I have known a dove-house infested by a pair of white owls, 

 which made great havoc among the young pigeons : one of 

 the owls was shot as soon as possible ; but the survivor readily 

 found a mate, and the mischief went on. After some time the 

 new pair were both destroyed, and the annoyance ceased. 



Another instance I remember of a sportsman, whose zeal for 

 the increase of his game being greater than his humanity, after 

 pairing-time he always shot the cock-bird of every couple of 

 partridges upon his grounds ; supposing that the rivalry of many 

 males interrupted the breed : he used to say, that, though he had 

 widowed the same hen several times, yet he found she was still 

 provided with a fresh paramour, that did not take her away 

 from her usual haunt. 



Again : I knew a lover of setting, an old sportsman, who has 

 often told me that soon after harvest he has frequently taken 

 small coveys of partridges, consisting of cock-birds alone; these 

 he pleasantly used to call old bachelors. 



There is a propensity belonging to common house-cats that is 

 very remarkable ; I mean their violent fondness for fish, which 

 appears to be their most favourite food : and yet nature in this 

 instance seems to have planted in them an appetite that, unas- 

 sisted, they know not how to gratify : for of all quadrupeds 

 cats are the least disposed towards water ; and will not, when 

 they can avoid it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge 

 into that element. 



Quadrupeds that prey on fish are amphibious : such is the 

 otter, which by nature is so well formed for diving, that it 

 makes great havoc among the inhabitants of the waters. Not 

 supposing that we had any of those beasts in our shallow 

 brooks, I was much pleased to see a male otter brought to me, 

 weighing twenty-one pounds, that had been shot on the bank 

 of our stream below the Priory, where the rivulet divides the 

 parish of Selborne from Harteley-wood. 



[One of my neighbours shot a ring-dove on an evening as it 

 was returning from feed and going to roost. When his wife had 

 picked and drawn it, she found its craw stuffed with the most 



