238 BRITISH BIRDS. 



fed the young hurriedly five or six times in rapid 

 succession, until they no longer " shouted " for more, 

 and then left the nesting site, returning about once an 

 hour to have a look at them, but not feeding them or 

 going on to the nest unless they " shouted," they 

 apparently not requiring more food for three or four 

 hours. 



The Hoodies were fed entirely by regurgitation. I 

 was never able to see food passing, and, on dissection, 

 their crops contained nothing but the opercula of a few 

 winkles and remains of beetles ; probably their main diet 

 was gulls' eggs. 



In the case of the Ravens it was, except quite at the 

 beginning, easy to see what the young were fed on, as 

 the mother did not put her head quite so far into the 

 youngsters' gapes, and the morsel was often visible in 

 her beak. Except once, when something like carrion- 

 fat was given, it was invariably the cotyledons of the 

 foetal membranes of sheep. As lambing was going on 

 from the time they were hatched until after they left the 

 nest there was a superabundance of food. The shep- 

 herds seemed to bear them no ill will, saying they only 

 attacked dead or dying lambs and sheep. The male did 

 nearly all the foraging, his range extending quite three 

 miles, to my knowledge. In the intervals between feed- 

 ing, the old birds spent most of their time watching the 

 nest from the opposite side of the valley, about two to 

 three hundred yards away. There were two or three 

 favourite positions towards the top of the fell where, 

 when looking out of the tent, I could be nearly sure to 

 see the female watching. The male brought food and 

 transferred it to her there. When not thus engaged he 

 would be standing watching, often some distance from her. 



Once when they were together I noticed both birds 

 standing face to face with the tips of their beaks 

 touching. They stood motionless in this position for 

 three or four minutes. On another occasion the male 

 facing the female jumped up into the air two or three 



