NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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, unassisted, 

 they know not how to gratify : for of all quadrupeds cats are the 



* This takes place generally, and in the case of carrion crows we have known it occur 

 more than once in the same spring. Birds of prey immediately find another mate when 

 any accident happens to one of the pair. The grey-backed or hooded crow, corvns 

 corni.f, Linn., is a migratory species in many parts, and when any accidental circumstances 

 cause one or two birds to remain, they mate in spring with the carrion crow. This in- 

 stinctive desire for procreation is not however confined to birds ; when the male salmon 

 has been killed from his mate on the spawning-bed, his place is immediately supplied by 

 another. 



