MAGPIE AND JAY 55 



day two magpies were observed completing the nest begun by the 

 original pair. The widow (or widower) had, it appears, contracted a 

 new union without loss of time, and " all the magpies of the district 

 had been present to celebrate the occasion." This was in 1888. Some 

 years later M. Raspail repeated the experiment, shooting the male. 

 The results were exactly similar. The same thing occurred a third 

 time, but in a different and more wooded district. In this case the 

 participants were more numerous, and their proceeding very much 

 more discordant. 



These observations present several points of interest In the 

 first place, what part do the birds paired for life play in the first or 

 earlier marriage ceremonies ? Are they, as M. Raspail appears to 

 think, present at the second, moved thereto by a very human-like 

 interest in match-making. Or were the birds he saw all suitors ? 

 And how were they notified in so short a time that a widow (or 

 widower) was to be won ? Did the latter exercise deliberate choice ? 

 If so. how did she (or he) make the same manifest, and how did the 

 rejected suitors accept their fate ? 



Many other instances of the survivor of a pair remating are on 

 record, but not under circumstances similar to those above described. 

 Six hen magpies have been shot in succession, each having sat on the 

 same eggs. Darwin cites a similar case in which no less than seven 

 were shot, but all to no purpose, for the last pair reared their young. 

 The remating of a hen hooded-crow has already been described (p. 25). 

 One of a pair of carrion-crows was killed, and the next day three were 

 seen feeding the young. Examples might be multiplied. A number 

 will be found in the Descent of Man, relating to several species. The 

 most remarkable of these is given of starlings. Not less than thirty- 

 five were shot one after another at the same nest, both males and 

 females. Nevertheless a brood was reared. 1 



1 For the remating of the magpie see Darwin, op. tit. ; W. Macgillivray, British Birds, 

 1; R. Gray, Birds of the West of Scotland. For the jay: Darwin, op. cit. The raven: Nau- 

 mann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, edit. Hennicke, 1897-1905, iv. 91 (hen shot). The carrion-crow: 

 Yarrell, British Birds, edit. Newton, vol. ii., and the Field, 1868, xxi. p. 415. The jackdaw : 

 Field, 1861, xvii. p. 493. 



