306 
THE PRINCIPLES OF 
Past II.. 
BIRDS. 
With respect to the Fowl, I have received only one account*, 
namely, that out of 1001 chickens of a highly-bred stock of Cochins* 
reared during eight years by Mr. Stretch, 487 proved males and 514 
females : i. e. as 94*7 to 100. In regard to domestic pigeons there 
is good evidence that the males are produced in excess, or that their 
lives are longer ; for these birds invariably pair, and single males, 
as Mr. Tegetmeier informs me, can always be purchased cheaper 
than females. Usually the two birds reared from the two eggs 
laid in the same nest consist of a male and female ; but Mr. Harrison. 
Weir, who has been so large a breeder, says that he has often bred 
two cocks from the same nest, and seldom two hens ; moreover the 
hen is generally the weaker of the two, and more liable to perish. 
With respect to birds in a state of nature, Mr. Gould and others 441 
are convinced that the males are generally the more numerous; and. 
as the young males of many species resemble the females, the latter 
would naturally appear to be the most numerous. Large numbers 
of pheasants are reared by Mr. Baker of Leadenhall from eggs laid 
by wild birds, and he informs Mr. Jenner Weir that four or five? 
males to one female are generally produced. An experienced ob- 
server remarks 45 that in Scandinavia the broods of the capercailzie 
and black-cock contain more males than females ; and that with the 
Dal-ripa (a kind of ptarmigan) more males than females attend the: 
leks or places of courtship ; but this latter circumstance is accounted 
for by some observers by a greater number of hen birds being killed, 
by vermin. From various facts given by White of Selborne, 46 it 
seems clear that the males of the partridge must be in considerable- 
excess in the south of England ; and I have been assured that this 
is the case in Scotland. Mr. Weir on enquiring from the dealers 
who receive at certain seasons large numbers of ruffs (. Machetes • 
pugnax ) was told that the males are much the most numerous. 
This same naturalist has also enquired for me from the bird- 
catchers, who annually catch an astonishing number of various small 
species alive for the London market, and he was unhesitatingly- 
answered by an old and trustworthy man, that with the chaffinch 
the males are in large excess ; he thought as high as 2 males to- 
44 Brehm (‘ Illust. Thierleben,’ B. iv. s. 990) comes to the same con- 
clusion. 
45 On the authority of L. Lloyd, ‘Game Birds of Sweden,’ 1867, p. 12,, 
132. 
46 1 Nat. Hist, of Selbourne,’ letter xxix. edit, of 1825, vol. i. p. 139. 
