Selous : Ornithological Observations in Brittany. 163 
thus all the time. The bill is a veritable dagger, so sharply 
and finely is it pointed, and, in proportion to the size of the 
bird, of some length. Once when the male came in with a 
good-sized green caterpillar, the voices of people passing 
through the valley (it being Sunday) startled him, and he 
flew away with it. As he did not bring it again on his return, 
presumably he ate it himself. All has gone on as _ before, 
the female making two or three visits, and feeding the chicks, 
in quick succession, then settling herself upon them with 
several little rufflings of her feathers, rising a little and re- 
settling herself, as with extreme satisfaction, before finally 
brooding. If the male comes with his offering, well and good, 
but she does not wait for him, but goes off when she has sat 
long enough herself, without food, or thinks the chicks want 
more. The whole thing is perhaps the prettiest picture of 
bird life that I have yet seen. It seems probable that, from 
relations like these, has grown that fixed division of labour as 
between the male and female, in the providing and sub- 
sequent disposal of the food, which we see in some of the birds 
of prey, e.g., the Peregrine, Merlin, and Sparrow Hawk, 
and which has become so tyrannical, that it seems probable 
the young would be left to starve in the nest sooner than an 
alteration of custom be made to meet some sudden contingency, 
such, for instance, as the death of either parent. Whether 
however, the habit of the male feeding the female on the nest 
has originated out of his feeding the young, or vice versa is 
not, perhaps, easy to settle, though the first seems the most 
probable. 
This time I saw more clearly the process of cleaning the 
nest, which consists, with these birds, in the systematic swallow- 
ing of the excrements of the young. The female was the most 
assiduous in this, which is a necessary outcome of her being 
far more on the nest, but both parents are influenced by the 
same traditions. 
The above observations were made from an efficient shelter 
at a greater distance from the nest than I had watched at, 
on former occasions, as there had lately been signs of the birds 
becoming shy, which might, perhaps, have ended in the male’s 
ceasing to co-operate. I have now a perfect view (except for 
the gloom of their nesting retreat) at a quite safe distance as 
far as observation is concerned. [I left at 7-10. 
(To be continued). 
7O% 
The Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, part 16, has recently 
been issued, and contains a paper on ‘ How we used to deal with Wife 
Beaters in Holderness.’ Among the other items is a paper on ‘ Popular 
Speech and Standard English,’ by L. P. Smith. 
1915 May 1. 
