58 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



[vol. 



X. 



silence, dropped the bird almost without touching the nest 

 and went. Sometimes he w as in such a hurry that he did 

 not put the bird far enough on the nest, and it rolled off 

 again before one of the netlings could grab it. I picked 

 up two of these and they proved to be a cock Chaffinch 

 in full moult and a young House-Sparrow. The worst 

 of the argument was that we could not distinguish which 

 bird gave a particular note. One note — "pay-ee,pay-ee, 



Fig. i. SPARROW-HAWK. 



" After tbe yoinig have left the nest, the cock briDgs food to it for some time," 

 (The white spot in the middle of tlie nest is an infertile egg). 



{Photographed by J. H. Owen.) 



pay-ee " — we thought was made by the cock as a final 

 protest ; we had also heard this note by the same cock 

 early in the nestling period. The rest of the notes 

 followed one another so quickly that we never got them 

 down to our satisfaction. 



There was one thing in the first wood that was 

 peculiarly interesting. Among the birds of the wood 

 was a Tawny Owl, and he usually seemed to be on the 

 windy side of the wood. From him we always got the 

 first intimation that the cock hawk had entered the wood. 



