32 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. x. 



and some are caught on the nest. These she removes 

 later, and with them bits of the down. She holds the prey 

 between her feet and by the inside claw of each foot. 

 To tear a bit off she takes a portion in her bill and twists 

 and pulls at the same time, and thus gets the greatest 

 possible power on the joint. The time taken over a meal 

 varies very much, the limits being from one and a half 

 minutes to about a quarter of an hour. Usually three 

 minutes are enough. As with sitting, so with brooding 

 and feedmg, the hen takes up a position with her back 

 to the wind, or nearly so, to shelter the young. Some- 

 times in a dry strong wind she feeds or sits facmg it, or 

 sideways to it, after trying to keep her back to it. 



If a young one rejects a morsel because it is too big, 

 or the morsel slips out of its bill before the young one 

 can bolt it, the hen will offer it to another of the brood. 

 If it is again rejected she may offer it to a third or bolt 

 it herself. I have more than once seen a hen take up a 

 gizzard thus rejected and try to split it, while the young 

 waited expectantly, and on each occasion she had to 

 swallow it herself in the end. (Fig. 2.) 



Until the youngest is twelve to fourteen days old 

 the hen does not leave the nest much, except to meet the 

 cock or for some purpose that will not keep her away 

 long. She comes and goes very noiselessly on these 

 occasions. When she gets back to the nest with food 

 she very often calls " kew-kew-kew " loudly, just after 

 alighting. I thought for a long time that this Mas a 

 signal to the cock, and it well may be, but it was not 

 done always. If the cock brings food to the nest he 

 leaves it and goes. The hen seldom does so, but takes 

 the remains of the carcass with her if she leaves the 

 nest while feeding. She may occasionally leave a bird 

 at the nest when the young can feed themselves, and I 

 have once seen her do so in the earlier period ; that 

 was a Sky-Lark brought by the cock during a terrible 

 thunderstorm, towards the end of which the hen was 

 put off the nest and left the Lark behind. If the cock 



