178 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. x. 



before coming to it. When she is brooding the cock 

 heralds his approach with a repeated " chee-uck " or 

 *' chu-ik, chee-nck." She answers with a " chi-ee-i " and 

 at the same time half rises from the nest and rapidly 

 flutters her wings, opens her bill and indeed acts just 

 as a fledged nestling would. This curious performance 

 is also gone through when she is perched. Although the 

 hen often eats the food under these circumstances this 

 is not invariably the case. At other times when the 

 cock brings food the hen calls him with " chee-ay, 

 chee-ay," the " ay " being hardly audible. When this 

 note is used she does not flutter her wings, but may 

 swallow the food herself or pass it on to the young. This 

 fluttering of the wings is not confined to the hen, but 

 the cock also does it when on one of his favourite perches, 

 of which there are usually two or three near the nest. 

 It is rather like a courtship action and this would seem 

 especially to be so when first one bird of a pair and then 

 the other performs the action on the same perch. 



The young, like the adults, have a variety of notes. 

 The food-call they first make is impossible to put into 

 letters. At the age of ten days, they greet the parents 

 with " chuck, yuck, yuck, yuck," and " ee-uk, ee-uk," 

 When they are almost ready to leave the nest, their food- 

 calls are " chic-chic-chic " and " cheec-cheec-cheec-chuc- 

 chuc-chuck." When they have left the nest it becomes 

 " kee-uk, kee-uk, kee-uk." They then have an alarm 

 note, " tick-tick-tick," and a very similar call " chic- 

 chic-chic." If they are in hiding, after they have left 

 the nest, and want food very badly, they utter a suc- 

 cession of notes, " che-uk, chee-uk, cheeee-uk, cuck, 

 chuck, cheek, cheek, cheek, cheek." If the hiding 

 places of the young are approached, the hen becomes 

 very noisy with the " chack, chack " alarm note. At 

 each syllable she flirts her tail sidcAvays or switches it 

 up and down. As it moves sideways the feathers on 

 that side fan out and the feathers of the other half close, 

 but in the up and down movement the whole tail is 



