28 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. x. 



Like other birds, they vary much as to closeness of 

 sitting, but nearly all sit especially close as the time for 

 hatching comes on. I have on more than one occasion 

 had my head level with the brim of the nest before the 

 hen has left, and once touched the bird with my hand. 

 This also is the case where the hen has been kept ofi 

 the young rather a long time or during heavy rain, even 

 when the brooding period is past. Until the brooding 

 period is past, the hen will come on the nest in less than 

 a quarter of an hour after being disturbed ; often when 

 I have watched from a hut she has been back at the 

 nest within a minute of my companion leaving me. Her 

 courage is really marvellous, for I have timed one to be 

 on the nest in a little over an hour in face of a camera 

 placed in the open a bare six feet from the nest. A 

 hut is treated with great indifference after a very 

 short time. 



Ordinarily, when the laying commences, the nest is 

 made only of various sizes of twigs, and the well of the 

 nest is lined with the finest. Sometimes the part that is 

 to bear the eggs is lined with bark, rotten wood, or leaves 

 in addition, before an egg is deposited. If this is not 

 the case, the hen will add a certain amoimt of such 

 material to the nest during the laying and incuba- 

 tion periods. Her activity in this respect is greatly 

 increased at the time hatching should commence. She 

 also adds material to the nest, mostly in the form of 

 twigs, during the nestling period. These are all broken 

 off the nest-tree or trees in the immediate neighbourhood. 

 They are sometimes brought because a young one seems 

 uncomfortable, but the chief reason, in mj'^ opinion, is for 

 sanitary purposes, to cover any pellets, dung, or bits of 

 meat that have become wedged or sunk among the nest 

 material. Some of the twigs brought are strong sticks, 

 and these are put on the outside, but most of them are 

 very fine and placed in the well. It is for tliis reason 

 that a deep-cupped nest becomes nearly flat, and often 

 inches higher, at the end of the nestling period. 



