NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 123 



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. 1 



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 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 



1 Sir William Jardine adds the following note (ed. " Selborne," 1853, p. 84 

 note): "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, Corvus cornix, 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 instinctive 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." [R. B. S.] 



