APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 187 



through the air. Some of the skin and feathers 

 appeared to be removed together, as the pieces 

 fell straight to the ground. She rubbed her 

 beak constantly on the branch to rid her nostrils 

 of fluff, I suppose. In a couple of minutes she 

 started going round to the branchers, feeding 

 them from her beak, and I felt satisfied that she 

 had fed four ; but she did not come to the nest. 

 The last youngster will not be long in the nest, 

 I think, as he has started climbing about the 

 tree. 



July 16 The nest was empty, so I made a long examina- 

 tion of the nest and remains. It took me about 

 three and a half hours. The nest was 12 inches 

 across and rather a rough oval in shape, being 

 nearly 18 inches long, excluding the odds and 

 ends of twigs projecting. The cup of the nest 

 now trodden almost flat was originally shallow, 

 and about the size of a double handful. The 

 nest was about 12 inches from top to bottom, 

 and was made of large twigs of fir and lined 

 with smaller twigs of birch and fir. The whole 

 was smothered with the down of the young, the 

 small feathers of prey, the decayed castings of 

 small feathers and bones. The nest, tree, and 

 surrounding ground and herbage were liberally 

 whitewashed. I found only one small fragment 

 of egg shell in the nest. The debris of prey 

 identified was as follows : 



(a) Fringilla c celebs 1 upper mandible. 

 Turdus merula 1 upper mandible, Juv. 



(b) Skulls with mandibles attached nearly all 

 shewing crown cheek and some chin 

 feathers : Passer domesticus, 4 males and 

 2 females ; Erithaca rubecula, 1 male ; 

 Saxicola rubicola, 1 male. 



