VOL. XIV.] NOTES ON SOMERSETSHIRE RAVENS. ;il 



March 31st was the last date I saw the female brood the 

 young. No brooding was attempted by the male, neither 

 did he ever feed the young, he seldom came to the nest even 

 to remain a few seconds. I cannot say if my presence in 

 any way affected him ; I should not think it did, as I was 

 fairly motionless and well hidden by the rock. I watched 

 the female several times search amongst the grass where she 

 would find and swallow something. The grass abounded 

 with a small black beetle, they were crawling slowly over 

 the grass everywhere ; no doubt a source of food supply, 

 at times, for herself and chicks. When feeding young no 

 food could be observed. Her throat and neck were crammed 

 so much at times that the mandibles could be clearly seen 

 a little open as she winged her way towards me ; and the 

 feathers of the neck stood out as though she wore a ruff, 

 giving her quite a grotesque appearance. Alighting always 

 on the rim of the nest she faced the four wide open mouths, 

 down went her large bill well into the throat of chick No. i, 

 then out and well down into the throat of No. 2, out and down 

 into No. 3, and feeding was over ; the mouths remained 

 open for more, they still cried. From my point of view I 

 did not know whether they had been fed or not, as I did 

 not see any food. On one occasion after alighting on the 

 nest she vomited perceptibly, lurching forward her head, 

 and it appeared as though food came up into the mouth ; 

 her beak was at once thrust down the open gape of a youngster. 

 I never saw all four receive food at the same meal, sometimes 

 one only was fed, sometimes three ; but it seemed that all 

 four would have liked much more food than they got. 



After feeding came cleaning. Extract from notes April 

 7th : " She steps with one foot only just down into the nest 

 and commences to tug and pull strongly at the lining of 

 it ; the nestlings scramble towards the inner part of the 

 nest in a helpless moving bunch, for they try but fail to stand 

 up. She continues to peck all over the bottom of the nest, 

 ceasing for a few seconds gently to peck off something from 

 one of the young. Now she is taking something from the 

 inner sticks at the top of the nest and bites it up with the 

 tips of the mandibles ; she wipes both sides of her bill on 

 the outside sticks and is away across the gorge." On this 

 date the young frequently pecked or tried to clean their 

 backs, which showed darker than the wings owing to the 

 quills on the latter. Ever and anon the female made vicious 

 dashes at the Jackdaws when they approached to enter 

 the cleft a couple of yards above the nest. 



