108 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



was unsuccessful in seeing anything except that the two were 

 together. She stayed longer away this time, and, on her return, 

 stood for a little while on the nest's edge without making any 

 distribution. After that she did feed the chicks, but not in so 

 interested a manner as usual, nor were they, on their parts, 

 nearly so eager ; also it was soon over, all which facts are 

 explained by the interval between this and the last meal not 

 having been a long one, so that neither mother nor children 

 were hungry. Leave at 6.35 p.m. 



In this distribution, as well as the last one, and one or two 

 preceding it, it is to be noted that the hawk has stood upon the 

 opposite side of the rim of the nest to that on which, from the 

 beginning, it has been her custom to, and in afterwards covering 

 the chicks has stepped over them in the opposite direction, and 

 settled herself from that side. This a curious reversal, for it is 

 not at all as if the bird stood now on one part of the nest, and 

 now another, indifferently. On the contrary, there has been 

 uniformity for a long time, and now, when a change comes, it is 

 the exact converse of what was, whilst the uniformity continues. 



July 1st. — Got to the plantation before 3.30 a.m. and waited 

 in a part of it that the male hawk usually comes to. At a few 

 minutes past 4 I heard his cry, and a little afterwards there 

 was the cry of the female, after which it was evident that the 

 two birds were together. A few minutes later the female flew 

 back into the home-tree, but I did not see her on the nest when 

 I had walked within view of it. In another five minutes or so, 

 however, upon the renewal of the call of the male hawk, she 

 flew, apparently, from off it — perhaps from a part of the rim 

 where she was invisible or hardly to be seen in the still gloomy 

 plantation. She could not, however, have been feeding the 

 chicks, or I must have seen her. After this exit — no doubt the 

 second one — there were the usual cries, and I saw the female fly 

 from one tree to another, and, the last time, either into the home- 

 tree itself or one whose branches adjoined it. From wherever she 

 settled came the usual cry, which is uttered at intervals during a 

 meal, discussed in this manner, for she has always fed silently on 

 the nest. Very probably, therefore, sbe was feeding on what the 

 male had brought her, but if so, she continued her meal upon 

 the nest after she had flown to it again, at 4.30, At first she 



