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. 
* 1 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 owl 
does not usually prey on birds at all, but is a great devourer of the rats, which sometimes commit 
great havoc in pigeon-houses ; and 1 do not know that a better proof can be adduced, that the owl 
is not an enemy to the pigeon, than is afforded by the simple fact that the latter neither exhibits 
fear nor hostility at the presence of the night wanderer. Indeed few predatory birds ever prey 
much in the immediate vicinity of their abode, a curious circumstance, which v/ould seem to be 
pretty well understood by the birds themselves. A pair of magpies will thus never attack the 
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 W. Jardine also discovered 
a wild duck sitting within ten paces of the eyry of a peregrine falcon, and 1 have myself found a 
whitethroat's nest in a contiguous bush to that which contained a brood of unfledged red-backed 
shrikes. — Ed. 
