202 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol xv 



exception to this rule seems to be if the female is killed 

 after the first week of the life of the young, when the male 

 will do the feeding as well as the hunting. Should this 

 eventuality arise earlier, he will apparently leave the young 

 to starve. 



During incubation Birch has several times killed one of a 

 pair of Merlins and found that the remaining bird has 

 promptly secured a fresh mate. He has not found this to 

 happen after the hatching of the eggs. Possibly the lateness 

 of the season may be responsible for failure to find a fresh 

 mate at this time. 



The pair of birds watched and referred to above were 

 birds found and kept for me by Birch until my arrival from 

 Canada. The nest contained one egg when found. When 

 I had to leave for London the birds had been sitting for 

 twenty-four days. Birch very kindly offered to tramp 

 daily to the eyrie so as to get me the date of hatching and 

 further to ascertain the treatment of the young during 

 their first few days of life. Unfortunately the eggs never 

 hatched and were sent down to me for examination, upon 

 which I found that the}' had been spoiled half way through 

 incubation, presumably on the day when the camera went 

 into the hide, the birds on that day being off the eggs for 

 over an hour. This as far as I know was the longest period 

 away,, so that the eggs can evidently stand but little exposure. 



The behaviour of the only family of 3'oung I have kept 

 under constant observation I will describe in detail. As 

 far as I can tell from spasmodic observations of other pairs 

 it was quite typical. 



{To be continued) . 



