74i ORNITHOl.OGICAL EAMBLES. 



evinced by tlieir louder and more frequent cries, 

 by degrees approached nearer to the nest, and 

 were shot one after another to the number of 

 five." 



Now, what strikes me as more especially worthy 

 of notice in this case, is the fact that the young 

 birds are not supplied with food at a distance 

 from the nest after they have left it, but that 

 while these yet haunt its neighbourhood, and are 

 still incapable of providing for themselves, the old 

 ones convert it at once into a larder and refec- 

 tory, which they stock with a constant supply of 

 freshly-killed prey, to which the others resort 

 when pressed by hunger, and are there fed by 

 their parents, and probably receive their first les- 

 sons in the art of plucking and breaking up their 

 dinner. 



This will appear to be a wise provision of Na- 

 ture, if we reflect upon the difficulties and delays 

 that would attend the operation of feeding the 

 young birds separately at this stage of their 

 existence — when their appetite is probably the 

 keenest — far from the nest, and at a considerable 

 distance from each other. 



