18.01.2013 Views

The Descent of Man

The Descent of Man

The Descent of Man

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

y an old and trustworthy man, that with the<br />

chaffinch the males are in large excess: he<br />

thought as high as 2 males to 1 female, or at<br />

least as high as 5 to 3. (65. Mr. Jenner Weir received<br />

similar information, on making enquiries<br />

during the following year. To shew the<br />

number <strong>of</strong> living chaffinches caught, I may<br />

mention that in 1869 there was a match between<br />

two experts, and one man caught in a day<br />

62, and another 40, male chaffinches. <strong>The</strong> greatest<br />

number ever caught by one man in a single<br />

day was 70.) <strong>The</strong> males <strong>of</strong> the blackbird, he<br />

likewise maintained, were by far the more numerous,<br />

whether caught by traps or by netting<br />

at night. <strong>The</strong>se statements may apparently be<br />

trusted, because this same man said that the<br />

sexes are about equal with the lark, the twite<br />

(Linaria montana), and goldfinch. On the other<br />

hand, he is certain that with the common linnet,<br />

the females preponderate greatly, but unequally<br />

during different years; during some years he<br />

has found the females to the males as four to

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!