MONOGAMOUS BIRDS. 89 



celibacy is matter of choice or necessity, is not so easily disco- 

 verable. When the house-sparrows deprive my martins of their 

 nests, as soon as I cause one to be shot, the other, be it cock or 

 hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several times fol- 

 lowing. 



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

 which made great havock 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. 



* I suspect Mr. White was wrong in attributing the loss of the young pigeons to the predatory 

 propensities of the owls, however appearances may have favoured the supposition. The white 

 does not usually prey on birds at all, but is a great devourer of the rats, which sometimes cofti 

 great havoc in pigeon-houses ; and I do not know that a better proof can be adduced, that the 

 is not an enemy to the pigeon, than is afforded by the simple fact that the latter neither exhibit 

 fear nor hostility at the presence of the night wanderer. Indeed few predatory birds ever pre 

 much in the immediate vicinity of their abode, a curious circumstance, which would seem to b 

 pretty well understood by the birds themselves. A pair of magpies will thus never attack th 

 inmates of a yard near which they have constructed their nest, save in instances where the latter 

 has been robbed, in which case they are less particular. Mr. Waterton relates an instance 

 of a pair of cushat pigeons selecting for nidification the very tree on which a pair of magpies 

 had already built, both of which reared their young unmolested. Sir VV. Jardine also discovered 

 a wild duck sitting within ten paces of the eyry of a peregrine falcon, and I have myself found a 

 whitethroa'.'s nest in a contiguous bush to that which contained a brood of unfledged red-backed 

 shrikes. ED. 



