184 FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 



suppose, took the prey with her ; but of this I 

 am not certain). At 12.50 she flew back to 

 the nest, flew away again, and then returned 

 for a few seconds, leaving the prey. The 

 brancher flopped back into the nest for its 

 share. One of the larger and more advanced 

 youngsters then fed off the prey the hen had 

 brought, and when it had finished, at 1.12 p.m. 

 another bird took the carcase and fed. I 

 could not identify the prey beyond its being a 

 bird of some size. The plucked carcase looked 

 distinctly larger than that of a thrush. As 

 noted above, apparently the female brings the 

 prey plucked, the cock does not. At 2.18 the 

 youngest or most backward youngster then 

 got the carcase to pull at and fed hard. This 

 had had nothing since its last good meal on 

 the small bird the cock brought in at 11 o'clock. 



E.H.C. 



I rather fancy the restlessness of the female was 

 due to shutter shyness, as Dr. Penrose was 

 using a cinematograph camera. Both W. and 

 I have seen the male bring prepared food to 

 the nest, some of the little corpses being minus 

 heads, wings, and feet too, sometimes. When 

 the young were very small he seemed to bring 

 in mostly small nestlings that did not want 

 much preparation. As the young advanced I 

 thought the food was served in a more rough 

 and ready way, especially by the male ; and the 

 birds brought seemed to be less tender morsels. 

 That much food was consumed with small 

 body -feat her son it was evidenced by the castings 

 in and below the nest observed after the young 

 had flown. While Dr. Penrose was packing 

 his camera the male came in and dropped food 



