FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 113 



their mouths, though they did not seem to care to drink more 

 than about a teaspoonful and a half at a lime. 



At 2.10 cock brought food (as a general rule the birds were 

 too quick for me to see what was brought, so that wherever 

 no food is specified by name it may be taken that I was 

 unabb to see the food.) 



At 2.15 and 2.25 hen brought food and took away excrement 



At 2.26 cock fed young. 



At 2.28 hen brought what I thought was a hymenopterous 

 fly (subsequent research satisfied me that this fly was really 

 a dipteron, as I found the parent birds were getting them 

 from a clump of spruce near, and I went over to investigat3). 



At 2.33 cock brought a number of black flies. 



At 2.34 hen brought small beetles (with red undersides 

 to the abdomen). 



A:. 3.5 hen brought small insects, fed young, and then left 

 at the click of ni}' shutter, but returned in two minutes and 

 cleaned the nest. 



At 3.12 cock brought tiny insects. 



At 3.22 cock again fed the young and cleaned the nest. 



This was a day of brilliant sunshine, but the following day 

 was dull with a strong light, but little sun. This fact is of 

 importance when the observations of June 2 are considered. 

 On June 2nd I got settled at 10.30, and as I was checking my 

 focus the cock arrived with a quantity of insects ; as he was 

 feeding the young, one of the insects escaped from his beak 

 and bolted into the grass. It was a small moth and looked 

 to me like Epiblema pftugiana ; the bird followed it and after 

 a hunt captured it and stuffed it, wings and all, down the 

 young bird's throat. 



At 10.40 cock again came and fed young and cleaned nest. 



The hen meanwhile sat on a bush outside the tent making 

 a mournful chirping noise as if uneasy. 



At 10.47 cock again fed young 



At 10.48 hen fed young and went back to the bush and 

 chirped (I believe she could see into the tent through one of 

 my peepholes). 



