n8 Baby Birds at Home 



birds, frogs, snakes, and slow-worms, which 

 are more easily overtaken and caught. 

 After feeding it will sit motionless for hours 

 on some jutting crag in the face of a cliff, 

 or on the branch of a tree. When on the 

 wing it has a habit of sailing round and 

 round in majestic circles, at a great height, 

 and uttering its plaintive catlike mewing 

 cry. 



It makes its nest of sticks and twigs, 

 frequently lining it with green leaves, or bits 

 of wool The structure is placed in the fork 

 or on the horizontal branch of a tree and 

 sometimes on a ledge in the face of a cliff. 

 Occasionally the old nest of a carrion crow 

 is utilised. 



The eggs number from two to four 

 and are variable in colour. Some speci- 

 mens are dingy white and without spots, 

 whilst others are greenish or bluish white, 

 spotted, blotched and streaked with reddish 

 brown. 



The chicks are covered with beautiful 

 white down when hatched. They leave the 

 nest before they can fly very far, and even 

 w^hen they are strong on the wing follow their 

 parents about for some time after fledging. 



