84 NATURE'S STORY OF THE YEAR 



(a frequent habit at this season) and also utters 

 a hoarse cry similar to the cries of the young. 

 The adult rook utters this note on no other 

 occasion. In several species of finches, also, the 

 male feeds his sitting mate. I have seen this 

 done by the chaffinch, greenfinch, linnet, and lesser 

 redpole. The recipients shook their wings and 

 uttered call-notes. The food thus bestowed could 

 hardly be termed a " love-gift," but when, before 

 birds have a nest and apparently before they have 

 paired, the male gives the female morsels of food, 

 it is fair to assume that this courtesy is intended 

 as an earnest of passion that it is, in fact, a love- 

 gift. In the ordinary books on birds there will be 

 found no reference to this habit ; but in the great 

 book of Nature it is recorded, and may be read 

 the more easily by a quiet observer with a good 

 telescope or field-glass. 



Among the birds of prey it is probable that the 

 brooding female obtains food chiefly by the agency 

 of her mate. Major C. H. Fisher (the late well- 

 known falconer) told me that the male pere- 

 grine hunts all day to supply the domestic larder, 

 which is in charge of his mate, 



