178 BIRD WATCHING 



own head on one side in order to do so, so that the rest 

 of the long bill projects sideways beyond the chick's 

 head without touching it. In this connection, and 

 whilst the chick's head is quite visible, little, if any 

 more than the beak being within the gape of the parent 

 bird, the latter bends the head down and makes that 

 particular action as of straining so as to bring some- 

 thing up, which one is familiar with in pigeons. This 

 process is gone through several times before the bird 

 standing on the ledge flies away, to return again in a 

 quarter of an hour with a piece of seaweed, which is 

 laid on the nest." Here again, as throughout, the 

 sexes of the birds can only be inferred or merely 

 guessed at. Both share in incubation, both feed the 

 young, both (I think) bring seaweed to the nest, and 

 both are exactly alike. 



As the chicks become older they thrust the head and 

 bill farther and farther down the throat of the parent 

 bird, and at last to an astonishing extent. Always, 

 however, it appeared to me that the parent bird brought 

 up the food into the chick's bills in some state of 

 preparation, and was not a mere passive bag from 

 which the latter pulled out fish in a whole state. 

 There were several nests all in unobstructed view, 

 and so excellent were my glasses that, practically, 

 I saw the whole process as though it had been 

 taking place on a table in front of me. The chicks, 

 on withdrawing their heads from the parental throat, 

 would often slightly open and close the mandibles 

 as though still tasting something, in a manner which 

 one may describe as smacking the bill ; but on no 

 occasion did I observe anything projecting from the 

 bill when this was withdrawn, as one would expect 



