92 THE BIRD WATCHER 
angry “ak, ak, ak, ‘-. and, on two occasions, has 
squirted something—T! presume, oil—at the intruder, 
causing it to go farther off. This cry is sometimes 
preceded by a more curious and less articulate one 
of “rherrrrrr !””—at a venture: I would not answer 
for the spelling being exact. 
I believe it is the mother who takes charge of the 
chick, and becomes so intensely jealous of it that she 
will not suffer even her caro spéso, to whom she was 
so much attached, to come within a certain distance 
of it. One cannot, indeed, say for certain that it is 
the husband who thus sometimes flies up, and seems 
to show a wish to approach his wife or child, but it 
is not likely that a strange bird would act in this way 
—for all are mated—and if both parents fed the 
young one, why should either repulse the other? 
I feel sure, therefore, that only one does, and this 
one is much more likely to be the female. 
The chick, in order to be fed, places its bill within 
that of the parent bird, and evidently gets something 
which she brings up into it. This appears to be 
liquid and, I suppose, is oil. Had it been solid, 
I must, I think, at this close distance, have seen it— 
or at least have seen that it was. Where, however, 
this supply of oil comes from, or how it is procured, 
1 have no very clear idea. Though the actions of 
the old bird in thus feeding the chick are something 
like those of a pigeon, yet they are much easier and, 
so to speak, softer. The liquid food is brought up 
without difficulty or straining, as one might, indeed, 
