104 
SEXUAL SELECTION: BIEDS. 
Past* 
conjecture is that male magpies must be much 511 ° lf 
numerous than the females ; and that in the above ca se6 ’ 
as well in many others which could be given, the 
alone had been killed. This apparently holds good P 
some instances, for the gamekeepers iuDelamere F ° ,-e 
assured Mr. Fox that the magpies and carrion-cro" 5 
which they formerly killed in succession in large 
bers near their nests were all males; find they “F 
counted for this fact by the males being easily hd‘ c ' 
whilst bringing food to the sitting females. Maeg 1 ’ 
livray, however, gives, on the authority of an excelF 11 ' 
observer, an instance of three magpies successive^ 
killed on the same nest which were all females; 031 
another case of six magpies successively killed wb$ 
sitting on the same eggs, which renders it probafr^ 
that most of them were females, though the male 
sit on the eggs, as I hear from Mr. Fox, when ^ 
female is killed. 
iSir J . Lubbock’s gamekeeper has repeatedly shot, b c 
how many times he could not say, one of a pair of j il ^ 
( Garrulus glandarius), and has never failed shoi'd- 
atterwards to tind the survivor rematched. The L* 3 ' 
W. I). Fox, Mr. F. Bond, and others, have shot one 
pair of carrion-crows ( Corvus cor one), but the nest 
soon agai 
« 
ill' 
u tenanted by a pair. These birds are ratk^ 
common; but the peregrine falcon ( Falco peregrin 
is rare, yet Mr. Thompson states that in Ireland 
“ either an old male or female be killed in the bree 1 
“ ing-season (not an uncommon circumstance), anotb e * 
“ mate is found within a very few days, so that 
“ eyries, notwithstanding such casualties, are sure t0 
“ turn out their complement of young.” Mr. Jen®^ 
Weir has known the same thing to occur with the pe^ 
griue falcons at Beachy Head. The same obsei' ve ’ 
informs me that three kestrels, all males ( Falco iv0& 
