66 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



gether ; nor could it in any case have been her mere presence 

 that annoyed him, since these hawks and these crows have been 

 fellow-denizens of this small plantation probably since early 

 spring, their home-trees separated by but a few paces, nor have 

 I before seen any signs of hostility between them." 



At place again at 12.13 p.m., and find hawk on nest — always 

 the female. At 12.33 she rises quietly, steps on to rim, and 

 flies off. I have neither seen nor heard anything signifying the 

 arrival of the male. 



12.88. — Hawk back with bird in claws, and I just get the 

 effect of this as she comes down on to the nest ; she at once 

 begins to tear it, and both feeds the chicks and eats herself — 

 latterly almost undividedly. The mutual meal lasts till 12.55, 

 and the hawk then sits, still and upright, on the rim of the nest 

 where she has torn up the prey — perhaps yet upon it. There 

 was certainly no pluming, for the bits became red at once, 

 though from the glimpse I caught the bird seemed in its natural 

 state when brought in, and I even thought it moved spon- 

 taneously, as though still alive — but I may very well have been 

 mistaken in both points. From the appearance of the bits, 

 which were pinkish rather than deep red, and often of a stringy 

 appearance — in fact, unmistakably entrails — I have no doubt 

 whatever that the visceral cavity was torn open, and the carcase 

 disembowelled. I could often see the fragments go from the 

 parent's bill to the chicks', as they reared themselves towards 

 it. [My notes here go on to say that the cry of the male as 

 the female flew in, with the shortness of her absence, again 

 makes me certain that she has received booty from him and not 

 caught it herself ; but as I have stated before that I neither saw 

 'nor heard the male, this point, as far as observation goes, must 

 be considered doubtful. It is possible, and perhaps not unlikely, 

 that I heard without noticing the cry at the time, and remem- 

 bered it afterwards.] 



1.28. — The hawk steps quietly over the chicks to the outer 

 side of the nest, stands there on its rim for a little, and is 

 brooding them again by 1.30. 



Just before 2.33 I had seen the hawk standing on the rim of 

 the nest — the opposite side to the usual dissecting-place — when, 

 at 2.33, I heard the cry of the male in the plantation, and, 



