174 FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 



was outside the tent at the moment the female 

 went away calling. I put up a few twigs at the 

 back of the nest out of view of the camera so 

 as to induce the female to come to the front 

 of the nest instead of hiding behind the tree 

 as she did yesterday. 12.15 the female came 

 to the nest on my side, then crossed over and 

 got behind the trunk, where she stood with the 

 prey under her feet, and tore it up into small 

 fragments, with which she fed the young from 

 her beak, or else dropped pieces of food on the 

 bottom of the nest. Having completed this 

 she quitted noiselessly. After being fed the 

 young stood upon their unsteady little legs 

 and changed places. They then searched the 

 bottom of the nest for food fragments, after 

 which they stood up and lurched about danger- 

 ously, stretched themselves, flapped their tiny 

 wings, and settled down again. 



About 1 o'clock the female came round again 

 calling " kree " about seven or eight times 

 running, and the young replied " kerwee " 

 (the " ees " being long-drawn and accented) 

 many times in little wheezy piping voices. 

 At 1.15 the female came to the back of the nest 

 and tore up food and fed the young out of her 

 beak, keeping her body behind the tree. As 

 soon as the female quitted I came out and put 

 a few twigs behind the tree to force the female 

 to come to the front of the nest ; but I had to 

 avoid very carefully putting anything that 

 would shew, as I did not want anything in the 

 picture that was not as Nature and the Sparrow 

 Hawks intended. At 2 p.m. there were a few 

 spots of rain, but not enough to bring the female 

 to the nest. At 2.45 the young birds (who spend 

 a good deal of time in watching flies and snap- 



