UNPAIRED BIRDS. 
103 
c «. 
4p - Xiv. 
^ bs Paired for the season. In any district in which 
I^Peeies does not exist in large numbers, great assem- 
lri ages cannot, of course, be belli, and the same species 
iu ' ,y ll ave different habits in different countries. For 
® ance, I have never met with any account ot regular 
sfcnT blages of black game in Scotland ’ y et these as ‘ 
m ,la ges are so well known in Germany and Scau- 
a 'ia that they have special names. 
t “"'Wired Birds.— From the tacts now given, we 
G °Qclude that with birds belonging to widely-dif- 
Cut gl 011 P s their courtship is often a prolonged, deli- 
ng’ itu 'i troublesome affair. There is even reason to 
‘pact, improbable as this will at first appear, that 
tij 1(5 ra; des and females of the same species, inhabiting 
jjj 6 SaiUe district, do not always please each other and 
p u i?. 11 Se< l'ience do not pair. Many accounts have been 
| J6r lsll ed of either the male or female of a pair having 
h e ' n sb °t, and quickly replaced by another. This has 
observed more frequently with the magpie than 
ap 1 an y other bird, owing perhaps to its conspicuous 
thit ear&nC6 and nest - The illustrious Jenner states 
1,1 Wiltshire one of a pair was daily shot no less 
«* sev en times successively, “but all to no purpose, 
Mi\ i'' e renaa ining magpie soon found another mate;” 
i s r l e last pair reared their young. A new partner 
-jjgcneraliy found on the succeeding day ; but -Mr. 
e Ve u h 8 °n gives the case of one being replaced on the 
hatr}. ng tbe same day- Even after the eggs are 
"'ill et ’ b °ne of the old birds is destroyed a mate 
of often be found; this occurred after an interval 
§l t j° da ys, in a case recently observed by one of 
• Lubbock’s keepers . 5 The first and most obvious 
5 o 
W ,l?. a SPies, Jenner, in ‘Phil. Transact.’ 1824, p. 21. Maegil- 
»lag. o f British Birds,’ vol. i. p. 570. Thompson, in * Annals and 
Xat - Hist.’ vol. viii. 1842, p. 494. 
