230 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xv. 



up and with a sudden whir, jumped on to the rock and pushed 

 the Httle Falcon off. Once he merely shifted to the alternative 

 post, but on the second occasion he sat on the ground for a 

 moment in blank surprise, then landed full on the chest of 

 his rival, who in his turn made an undignified descent, only 

 to repeat his onslaught a moment later and resume his seat. 

 Ignoring his fallen foe he blew out his chest and began to 

 " Beck," but before he was half way through, the now 

 thoroughly angry little Merlin flung himself with all his 

 might at the performer, who could stand no more, and 

 skimmed noisily away. The victor continued preening as 

 though nothing had happened. 



Grouse and Merlins were always on good terms, or perhaps, 

 more correctly,' never on bad ones. They completely ignored 

 each other's existence. Quietly hunting for bilberry leaves, 

 the game-birds would come strolling through the bracken 

 patch right up to the nest containing the young Hawks, 

 but the mother never attempted to chase them off. The 

 young showed no emotion of any sort on these occasions, 

 nor did the Grouse. The " Becking " of the latter, morning 

 and evening, was so constant all around that T assume they 

 considered it a natural part of their environment. 



A word as to the feeding of the young. As mentioned 

 above, this fell entirely to the mother. I am only aware of 

 one author who implies that the father shares in this work 

 (E. R. Paton, British Birds, Vol. XI., p. 30). I have never, 

 here or elsewhere, seen even so much as an attempt at this, 

 except, as stated above, in event of the mother's death. 



The prey included the following birds, Meadow-Pipit, 

 Sky-Lark, Ring-Ouzel, Snipe, Spotted Flycatcher, Willow- 

 Wren and Song-Thrush, though the first constituted 90 per 

 cent, of the entire supply. 



Usually the prey would be l^rought down plucked, with 

 the head and wings missing. The flesh, bit by bit, would 

 be tenderly given, by two or three successive mouthfuls, to 

 each chick in turn, the bones frequently being swallowed 

 by the mother as she cleaned them. She made very curious 

 use of her tail during these operations, using it as a third 

 leg to save herself from falling backwards as the meat came 

 off in jerks (Fig. 10). Sometimes she would bring down 

 the prey still partially unplucked, when she would give each 

 youngster in turn a mouthful of feathers only. She always 

 preceded this by swallowing a mouthful herself, and a mighty 

 effort it always required to get it down. The young found 

 it no easier, but on the whole took their medicine well. 



