402 THE DESCENT OP MAN. 



male or female of a pair having been shot, and quickly replaced 

 by another. This has been observed more frequently with the 

 magpie than with any other bird, owing perhaps to its conspicu- 

 ous appearance and nest. The illustrious Jenner states that in 

 Wiltshire one of a pair was daily shot no less than seven times 

 successively, "but all to no purpose, for the remaining magpie 

 "soon found another mate;" and the last pair reared their young. 

 A new partner is generally found on the succeeding day; but 

 Mr. Thompson gives the case of one being replaced on the even- 

 ing of the same day. Even after the eggs are hatched. If one ot 

 the old birds is destroyed a mate will often be found; this oc- 

 curred after an interval of two days, in a case recently observed 

 by one of Sir J. Lubbock's keepers.' The first and most obvious 

 conjecture is that male magpies must be much more numerous 

 than females; and that in the above cases, as well as in many 

 others which could be given, the males alone had been killed. 

 This apparently holds good in some instances, for the game- 

 keepers in Delamere Forest assured Mr. Pox that the magpies 

 and carrion-crows which they formerly killed in succession in 

 large numbers near their nests, were all males; and they ac- 

 counted for this fact by the males being easily killed whilst bring- 

 ing food to the sitting females. Macgillivray, however, gives, 

 on the authority of an excellent observer, an instance of three 

 magpies successively killed on the same nest, which were all fe- 

 males; and another case of six magpies successively killed whilst 

 sitting on the same eggs, which renders it probable that most of 

 them were females; though, as I hear from Mr. Fox, the male 

 will sit on the eggs when the female is killed. 



Sir J. Lubbock's gamekeeper has repeatedly shot, but how 

 often he could not say, one of a pair of jays (Garrulus glandarius), 

 a.nd has never failed shortly afterwards to find the survivor re- 

 matched. Mr. Fox, Mr. F. Bond, and others have shot one of 

 a pair ot carrion-crows (Corvus corone), but the nest was soon 

 again tenanted by a pair. These birds are rather common; but 

 the peregrine-falcon (Falco peregrinus) is rare, yet Mr. Thompson 

 states that in Ireland "if either an old male or female be killed 

 "in the breeding season (not an uncommon circumstance), an- 

 "other mate is found within a very few days, so that the eyries, 

 "notwithstanding such casualties, are sure to turn out their com- 

 "plement of young." Mr. Jenner Weir has known the same thing 

 with the peregrine-falcons at Beachy Head. The same observer 

 informs me that three kestrels (Falco tinnunculus), all males, 

 were killed one after the other whilst attending the same nest; 



' On magpies, Jenner, in 'Phil. Transact." 1824, p. 21. Macgrlllivray, 

 'Hist. British Birds,' vol. 1. p. 570. Thompson, in 'Annals and Mag. of 

 Nat. Hist' vol. vili. 1842, p. 494. 



