FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 165 



went down amongst the bracken and hunted the low stems of 

 small birch ; he roused a little Scoparia off one and chased him 

 down to the ground ; but I did not see whether he caught it, as 

 a lot of bracken intervened. I afterwards saw him searching 

 on the ground for food, and he seemed to be making a meal 

 for himself. Now and again he gave a " churck, " which made 

 the young renew the vigor of their chatter, which was not so 

 incessant as usual. 



9.55 and 10.5 The hen fed young. At 10.6 the male, after 

 which I left the nest for a time, as E.H.C. wanted my high 

 tent and stand moved up to a Picus viridis. Before doing 

 this, however, we thought we would test the liking of the 

 young for a moth, so we put a Cabera pusaria in a slit at the 

 end of a stick and offered it to one bird ; as we came close 

 to the nesting hole to do this the young bird drew back, but 

 as soon as the youngster caught sight of the Cabera pusaria he 

 went for it with all the vigour of a hungry bass going for a 

 smelt, extracted the moth from the slit in the stick, bolted 

 it wings and all, and emphatically showed his appreciation by 

 chattering and craning out of the hole and looking in our 

 direction for more. 1 returned to the nest and set up a small 

 tent to watch from with the binoculars, as I hoped that I 

 would be able to determine the food brought with greater 

 accuracy. 



1.40 The young were very active and noisy. 2.7 Male 

 brought small food, fed the young. This young bird is evidently 

 learning to speak, and has now added a chirp like a sparrow, 

 repeated in a warbler fashion, and not altogether unlike a 

 robin's warning note. The time that elapses between meals 

 for the young as the day advances, as compared with the early 

 morning, all goes to shew in my opinion that the food of 

 these birds is insects, including lepidoptera taken at rest. 

 It is notorious that unless you go trunk-searching and fence 

 searching before the sun is high your success is small, and 

 apparently the woodpeckers find the same difficulty as we do. 



2.22 Male fed. 2.27 Male fed the young by regurgitation. 

 2.29 Female fed also by regurgitation. 



