UNPAIRED BIRDS. 403 



two of these were in mature plumage, but the third was in the 

 plumage of the previous year. Even with the rare golden eagle 

 (Aquila chrysaetos), Mr. Birkbeck was assured by a trustworthy 

 gamekeeper in Scotland, that if one is killed, another is soon 

 found. So with the white owl (Strix flammea), "the survivor 

 "readily found a mate, and the mischief went on." 



White of Selborne, who gives the case of the owl, adds that 

 he knew a man, who from believing that patridges when paired 

 were disturbed by the males fighting, used to shoot them; and 

 though he had widowed the same female several times, she always 

 soon found a fresh partner. This same naturalist ordered the 

 sparrows, which deprived the house-martins of their nests, to 

 be shot; but the one which was left, "be it cock or hen, presently 

 "procured a mate, and so for several times following." I could 

 add analogous cases relating to the chaffinch, nightingale, and 

 redstart. With respect to the latter bird (Phaenicura ruticilla), a 

 writer expresses much surprise how the sitting female could so 

 soon have given effectual notice that she was a widow, for the 

 species was not common in the neighborhood. Mr. Jenner Weir 

 has mentioned to me a nearly similar case; at Blackheath he 

 never sees or hears the note of the wild bullfinch, yet when one 

 of his caged males has died, a wild one in the course of a few 

 days has generally come and perched near the wfdowed female, 

 whose call-note is not loud. I will give only one other fact, on 

 the authority of this same observer; one of a pair of starlings 

 (Sturnus vulgaris) was shot in the morning; by noon a new 

 mate was found; this was again shot, but before night the pair 

 was complete; so that the disconsolate widow or widower was 

 thrice consoled during the same day. Mr. Bngleheart also in- 

 forms me that he used during several years to shoot one of a pair 

 of starlings which built in a hole in a house at Blackheath; but 

 the loss was always immediately repaired. During one season 

 he kept an account, and found that he had shot thirty-five birds 

 from the same nest; these consisted of both males and fe- 

 males, but in what proportion he could not say: nevertheless, 

 after all this destruction, a brood was reared." 



These facts well deserve attention. How is it that there are 

 birds enough, ready to replace immediately a lost mate of either 

 sex? Magpies, jays, carrion-crows, partridges, and some other 

 birds, are always seen during the spring in pairs, and never by 



' On the peregrine falcon see Thompson, 'Nat. Hist, of Ireland, 

 Birds,' vol. 1, 1849, p. 39. On owls, sparrows, and partridges, see White, 

 'Nat. Hist, of Selborne," edit, of 1825, vol. i. p. 139. On the Phoenlcura, 

 see Loudon's 'Mag. of Nat. Hist.' vol. vii. 1834, p. 245. Brehm ('Thier- 

 leben,' B. iv. s. 901) also alludes to cases of birds thrice mated during 

 the same day. 



