FALCO. 189 



bough, about 6 feet below it, tearing a Roller (Coracias indica) to 

 pieces ; and I may mention that, when examined, this bird proved 

 to have had the whole head, neck, and upper part of the body 

 eat on ; the wings, tail, and lower portion of the body were alto- 

 gether uninjured. J shot the male, and he fell flat on the bough. 

 A man was sent up, who threw the male down; still there were 

 no signs of the female, and I called to the man to search the nest 

 for eggs. As he placed his hand at the side of the nest, which he 

 could only just reach, the female suddenly appeared from the hol- 

 low of the nest, and stood upon its margin. The man drew back 

 rather startled, the female turned towards the inside of the nest, 

 gave a vicious drive at it with her bill, and flew off. Oh taking 

 the eggs, it appeared that she had driven her powerful bill into 

 one of them, making a triangular hole, each side of which measured 

 about | inch. The female must have seen her mate shot, and 

 have felt, perhaps from the man still coming to the nest after 

 securing the male, that he intended to rob it. Did she break the 

 egg herself in anger ? The eggs were nearly ready to hatch off. 

 Had she, perchance, some glimmering idea that she might let the 

 chick out and thus save it ? It is impossible to say ; but a whole 

 party of us witnessed the fact, and it seems worthy of record. 

 "What struck me fully as much in this case was that, though the 

 male was in the act of tearing the Roller to pieces, and though 

 the whole ground for many yards round the tree was strewed 

 with feathers of Pigeons, Doves, and Hollers, a pair of Doves (T. 

 risoriti) had a nest with young ones in another leafy cluster of this 

 same tree, and another pair were sitting calmly on two bare sprays, 

 not 15 feet from where the male, whom they could not help seeing, 

 was devouring his prey. Had the Roller always been his prey, 

 one might have understood their fearlessness ; but around the 

 tree lay the feathers of, I should say, at least fifty individuals of 

 their own species. That the Falcons must designedly have spared 

 their fellow-tenants is clear ; the two birds, however wary and 

 watchful, could never have built their nest, hatched their young, 

 and partly reared these latter in safety, within 30 feet of the 

 Falcon's nest, unless these latter had allowed them to do so abso- 

 lutely without molestation; for, had one of the pair only once been 

 set upon or pursued, they would assuredly have deserted the 

 nest. The natives declared that this pair of Doves were left by 

 the Falcon as decoys, and that the other pair were strangers, who 

 would probably soon have fallen victims to the confidence en- 

 gendered by seeing the resident birds rearing their young in 

 security. 



Colonel Delrne Radcliffe, however, tells me that "it is always 

 the case with the larger Falcons that their fellow -tenants of a rock 

 or a tree are safe from molestation, and in the breeding-season 

 actually look to them for protection. As an exemplification of 

 this I may mention the following: At the two longitudinally 

 separated ends of the Isle of "Wight are two Falcons' nests (F. 

 , one at the Culvers, the other at Freshwater. In the 



