32 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xiv. 



Extract from note April 9th : " Now she pecks and swallows 

 something six times from the bottom of the nest ; as she 

 swallows, her bill is pointed into the air ; now she pecks bits 

 of faeces apparently off the young, and as she cleans their 

 posteriors they scramble away to the other side of the nest ; 

 she turns round and the white substance is adhering to the 

 sides of her mandibles, quite a contrasting colour, then she 

 flies away, pitches opposite, quite in view, and wipes each 

 side of her bill in the grass." 



One youngster, more forward than the others, was con- 

 stantly wriggling, and with half-open mouth, stretching his 

 neck over the side of the nest, so that the under part of his 

 beak rested on the sticks of the rim, he pecked his back 

 often. He failed to stand on this date (April 9th). but by 

 propping himself up against the others was able to peck his 

 breast. As the Jackdaws entered the cleft over the nest, 

 they all opened their mouths and cried, mistaking them 

 for the parent, so I presume that they could see. 



On April nth I clearly saw them shoot out their excretions 

 over the rim of the nest, and the outside was fast putting 

 on the appearance of being whitewashed, but the inner part 

 was kept scrupulously clean by the female, who picked up 

 every bit and ate it. Her favourite utterance when leaving 

 the nest was " Kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk," eight to twenty 

 times, very quickly repeated on the wing. 



On April 20th, the young were feathered, while two, stronger 

 than the others, were perched on the nest rim, preening 

 themselves continually, and flapping their wings as though 

 trying to fly. The parent came with bulging throat, and 

 on this one occasion a conspicuous white lump held between 

 the mandibles, this went into the first open mouth as she 

 stood on the nest rim right amongst them ; they all stood 

 to receive food. At 7 p.m. the two strongest young ones, 

 after standing for some time on the nest rim with their beaks 

 tucked in their wing-coverts, walked down into the nest, 

 and all four cuddled together for the night. The female 

 came and settled on a little rocky prominence a foot or so 

 higher, but to one side of the nest, and as she did so they 

 made feeble noises— just a good night, no movement. At 

 7.45 the male had not come in. The tails of the young on 

 this day were noticeably rounded. 



April 2ist, weather fine, three young on nest rim. This 

 afternoon the female after feeding the young, flew across the 

 gorge to the male and lit on a slab of stone about a foot away. 

 She pecked gently all the feathers of his back, nape and side 



