160 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. \iii. 



On July 23rd the young Hawks were still on the 

 nest, but on the 25th one had disappeared. On the 

 26th, when I approached the tree at 10.30 a.m., the 

 remaining three flew off. They rose high above the 

 trees and flew strongly. I examined the nest and found 

 six cleanly picked skeletons of Thrushes and one plucked 

 but almost intact Mistle-Thrush. 



Having suspicions that the young Hawks would 

 probably return to the nest to feed, I made another 

 examination on August 2nd. There was a pile of picked 

 bones, some quite fresh, as though the birds had fed 

 there within the last few hours. There were jaairs of 

 wing-bones attached to sterna, and legs joined by the 

 pelvic bones. I counted twenty complete pairs of 

 leg-bones besides odd ones. They were all of the size 

 of those of a Song-Thrush. Some undoubtedly had 

 belonged to Blackbirds, and some, I believe, to Mistle- 

 Thrushes. 



Judging from my notes made on the Avhole day vigil 

 on July 19th, feeding appeared to be most vigorous 

 from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., from 

 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. being a very slack period. This is 

 partly confirmed by the fact that on the six days 

 that I watched from 6 a.m. for three or four hours, 

 one occasion only was a blanl?, while on five occasions 

 at least two birds were brought, and on both occasions 

 when I spent an hour or tAvo in the afternoon, food 

 was brought. The fact that the male came seldom, and 

 never once stayed to break up the food he brought, was, 

 I am convinced, due only to his suspicious nature and 

 nervousness. The female, although showing alarm occa- 

 sionally, was as a rule quite unsuspicious, and continued 

 to break up food while I took photographs and changed 

 plates, although I sometimes made my exposures with a 

 noisy focal-plane shutter. 



