DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE SPARROW-HAWK. 67 



looking up again, she was gone. At 2.35 only, she flies back to 

 the usual place, and though I could not observe that she carried 

 anything, instantly begins to carve and distribute. She also 

 takes a little herself, but it is a far less ravenous meal than the 

 last and is over in ten minutes, when she stands on the place as 

 before, and does not brood the young again before 3.5. 



3.39. — Hawk suddenly off. I have heard no cry. At 3.50 

 she returns and settles in a tree. I thought she had a bird, but 

 could not at all make it out — it was only an impression. She 

 flies once or twice from tree to tree in the plantation — always 

 quite silently — and at about 3.55 goes on to the nest. She 

 brings no booty, but alighting on the opposite side to that where 

 she has hitherto broken up the quarry stands quiescent, nor is 

 there any sign from the chicks, who do not appear to be hungry. 

 As said before, there has been no cry or any other sign of the 

 male at or between this exit and return. It is, therefore, 

 significant that the female who left the nest on her own initia- 

 tive, as it would seem, should have brought nothing back to it, 

 merely sitting there quietly after return, as she did on another 

 and similar occasion, but as she has never done (as far as I 

 remember) when she has gone off on the call of the male. It 

 would be even more interesting if she had, during the interval 

 between her departure and return, caught a bird for herself, but 

 this I do not now think, or at least that she ate it in the planta- 

 tion, since it is contrary to my previous experience that she 

 should do this in silence, my impression of her having a bird, 

 therefore, was, I think, probably erroneous. 



At about 4 the hawk again covers the chicks, having previously 

 sat — or rather stood — motionless. She remains thus for nearly 

 fifty minutes, when hearing the cry of the male, I look up — my 

 eyes having left her for a few moments — and find her gone. At 

 4.54 the male hawk flies over the plantation and almost imme- 

 diately afterwards the female shoots swiftly on to the nest and 

 feeds the young again. The feeding is over at 5.5, and the hawk 

 then stands, sentinel-like, on the nest's rim where (as always) 

 she has alighted, and is still standing so at 5.30, when I walk 

 away from the tree. By 5.40, however, when 1 leave, she has 

 covered the chicks — no doubt after first stepping over them, on 

 to the other side of the nest, in the orthodox manner. 



