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Bullseye
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The common magpie (Corvus pica, Linn.), as I have been informed by
the Rev. W. Darwin Fox, used to assemble from all parts of Delamere
Forest, in order to celebrate the great magpie marriage." Some years
ago these birds abounded in extraordinary numbers, so that a
gamekeeper killed in one morning nineteen males, and another killed by
a single shot seven birds at roost together. They then had the habit
of assembling very early in the spring at particular spots, where they
could be seen in flocks, chattering, sometimes fighting, bustling
and flying about the trees. The whole affair was evidently
considered by the birds as one of the highest importance. Shortly
after the meeting they all separated, and were then observed by Mr.
Fox and others to be paired for the season. In any district in which a
species does not exist in large numbers, great assemblages cannot,
of course, be held, and the same species may have different habits
in different countries. For instance, I have heard of only one
instance, from Mr. Wedderburn, of a regular assemblage of black game
in Scotland, yet these assemblages are so well known in Germany and
Scandinavia that they have received special names.
Unpaired Birds.- From the facts now given, we may conclude that
the courtship of birds belonging to widely different groups, is
often a prolonged, delicate, and troublesome affair. There is even
reason to suspect, improbable as this will at first appear, that
some males and females of the same species, inhabiting the same
district, do not always please each other, and consequently do not
pair. Many accounts have been published of either the male or female
of a pair having been shot, and quickly replaced by another. This
has been observed more frequently with the magpie than with any
other bird, owing perhaps to its conspicuous appearance and nest.
The illustrious Jenner states that in Wiltshire one of a pair was
daily shot no less than seven times successively, "but all to no
purpose, for the remaining magpie soon found another mate"; and the
last pair reared their young. A new partner is generally found on
the succeeding day; but Mr. Thompson gives the case of one being
replaced on the evening of the same day. Even after the eggs are
hatched, if one of the old birds is destroyed a mate will often be
found; this occurred after an interval of two days, in a case recently
observed by one of Sir J. Lubbock's keepers.* The first and most
obvious conjecture is that male magpies must be much more numerous
than females; and that in the above cases, as well as in many others
which could be given, the males alone had been killed. This apparently
holds good in some instances, for the gamekeepers in Delamere Forest
assured Mr. Fox that the magpies and carrion-crows which they formerly
killed in succession in large numbers near their nests, were all
males; and they accounted for this fact by the males being easily
killed whilst bringing food to the sitting females. Macgillivray,
however, gives, on the authority of an excellent observer, an instance
of three magpies successively killed on the same nest, which were
all females; and another case of six magpies successively killed
whilst sitting on the same eggs, which renders it probable that most
of them were females; though, as I hear from Mr. Fox, the male will
sit on the eggs when the female is killed.
* On magpies, Jenner, in Philosophical Transactions, 1824, p. 21.
Macgillivray, Hist. British Birds, vol. i., p. 570. Thompson, in
Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. viii., 1842, p. 494.
Sir J. Lubbock's gamekeeper has repeatedly shot, but how often he
could not say, one of a pair of jays (Garrulus glandarius), and has
never failed shortly afterwards to find the survivor re-matched. Mr.
Fox, Mr. F. Bond, and others have shot one of a pair of
carrion-crows (Corvus corone), but the nest was soon again tenanted by
a pair. These birds are rather common; but the peregrine-falcon (Falco
peregrinus) is rare, yet Mr. Thompson states that in Ireland "if
either an old male or female be killed in the breeding-season (not
an uncommon circumstance), another mate is found within a very few
days, so that the eyries, notwithstanding such casualties, are sure to
turn out their complement of young." Mr. Jenner Weir has known the
same thing with the peregrine-falcons at Beachy Head. The same
observer informs me that three kestrels (Falco tinnunculus), all
males, were killed one after the other whilst attending the same nest;
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 partridges 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 **** 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 (Phoenicura 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
neighbourhood. 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 widowed
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. Engleheart also informs 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 females, but in what proportion he could
not say: nevertheless, after all this destruction, a brood was
reared.*
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