178 TEE ZOOLOGIST. 



flies directly to him. I catch a glimpse of the two together in 

 the air, and then of a pair of claws stretched down and grasping 

 something that looks larger than has hitherto been the case. 

 They are those of the female, as afterwards appears, for I follow 

 her thus laden into and from one tree to another, then into 

 a third, and from this to the nest. But though the booty 

 certainly looks larger, and from the hawk's way of picking at 

 it seems to stand further out from her feet than it has before — 

 for she bends her head less inwards — yet the duration of the 

 banquet does not bear this out, since it is over in five minutes. 

 It is all, or nearly all, given to the chicks. This, and my last 

 observation of yesterday, assure me that no change has been 

 initiated in the domestic economy of the birds, and that the 

 female is supplied, both for herself and young, entirely by the 

 male, not only, as I believe, from the time of the hatching of 

 the eggs, but during the incubation as well, for there were the 

 same cries of the male as he entered the plantation, and the 

 female flew to him in just the same way. 



About 5.35 the male re-enters the plantation, but he cries 

 for some time before the female goes to him. He does not 

 desist or go away, and here again it is evident that the one bird 

 is as interested in delivering the food as the other is in receiving 

 it from him. As has been seen, if kept too long waiting he will 

 even deposit it, himself, in the nest. At last, in perhaps some 

 ten minutes, the female hawk flies to her mate, there is the 

 usual meeting, and afterwards I see her standing on a bough 

 with something that might be a quite small dead bird held in one 

 cruel-looking claw, and uttering her plaintive-sounding cry. 

 Soon she flies to the nest with it, eats ravenously herself, for a 

 little, then feeds the chicks, and stands statuesquely. The joint 

 meal takes some five or ten minutes. 



July Mil. — This last morning of my observations — for I leave 

 by the afternoon steamer — tallies with my previous ones. I 

 entered the plantation at 4.20 a.m., finding the hawk on the nest, 

 and about 5 the voice of the male was heard, she flew to him 

 very shortly, and at 5.10 returned and fed the chicks— which 

 did not take quite five minutes. More than this I was unable to 

 see, but there is no need of further repetition. As always, the 

 voice of the female hawk was heard on this tree or that several 



