193 
A DIARY OF ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 
IN BRITTANY. 
EDMUND SELOUS. 
(Continued from page 163). 
JuLy 12TH.—The following was observed by me this morn- 
ing, during about an hour’s watching. At 7 the female flew 
in to the nest and fed the young twice in rapid succession. 
She had left it only the moment before on the ‘ rattle’ of the 
male, somewhere near. At 7-13 there were two more such 
quick-recurring visits, and at 7-14 another, each time, I think, 
the female. At 7-15 there is a double visit of both the birds. 
Both [I think feed the young, the first certainly, and it is the 
second arrival that now broods. 7-18, bird rises on nest, and 
resettles itself ; 7-19, two quickly repeated conjugal visits (with 
food, that is to say), to the sitting bird, and the latter feeds 
the young with this, and then flies off ; 7-23, a bird flies in and 
broods the young; 7-24, a conjugal visit, as before defined ; 
7-28, another, and now I feel assured that both parents brood 
the young, for the one that brought the food, and should there- 
fore by previous observation, not contradicted so far as I had 
perceived in the present instance, be the male, showed the one 
upon the nest—the female—in many pretty ways, that it 
wished to take her place there. He pressed gently against 
her, looked a little anxious, toyed with his bill amongst the 
feathers of her breast, etc., but she, with a pretty insistence, 
still sat there, and was left in possession. I could see no other 
way of accounting for these actions than a desire on the part 
of the bird that used them to brood the young, and there was a 
certain indefinable look also, which made it unmistakeable. 
It is true that these actions in themselves seem more to desig- 
nate the female, but in that case, the male was brooding. 
Either way, I have now no doubt that he shares this duty (as 
also probably that of incubation) with the female, though 
probably not equally ; and this is so also, in the case of the 
Garden Warbler. The brooding bird remains till 7-40 and then, 
probably after taking food from the other, flies off, leaving the 
nest empty. 
7-43, a bird flies in and feeds young, then broods them. 
This bird is so yellow that I think it must be the male. The 
nest, with the bird on it, now looks inconceivably pretty, with 
checkers of sunshine on the leafage about it. 
7-47, the brooding bird shows signs of anxiety, gradually 
increasing till it flies off. A moment afterwards either it or 
its partner appears in the neighbourhood of the nest, and a 
moment after that one or other of them flies down and feeds 
the young. Having done so, it flies away at once, but either 
1915 June 1. 
