28 The plague of fries. 
there ensue the usual food cries between them. I do not catch 
sight of her, but he brings in an adult intact female blackbird and 
tears it up for the young, commencing with its skull, which he 
breaks open and distributes. He took nearly fifteen minutes in 
tearing the bird up, and towards the end of the meal gave two or 
three of his scolding “ yacks’”’ to hurry the young. Although 
partly used to it, the sharpness and sudden harshness of this cry 
always startled me. The young, however, never appeared to be 
alarmed by it; it merely seemed to encourage them to take the 
proffered bit. The Tiercel then flew away for a minute or two, 
leaving the young still noisy, and on his return he brooded them. 
He continued brooding till 7.50 a.m., and then moved on to C. 
Several of the blackbird’s feathers were sticking to his talons. He 
cleared them off with his beak, holding up one foot at a time for 
the purpose, and then dozed, but always with one eye ready to espy 
the Falcon if she should appear. He stayed on C until 8.40 a.m., 
often half asleep, but generally with his weather eye on the sky 
or his lee eye on the shed, during which time I had breakfast. He 
appears to know perfectly well that there is something alive inside 
the shed, and is but little interested what it is so long as it does not 
hurt him or his. He merely gives a casual glance when I cough, 
strike a match or make any other noise, and watches me cautiously 
arranging the curtains in order to train the camera on to him, 
although only standing five feet away from it, and when I am quite 
ready—he closes his eyes. At 8.40 a.m. some oyster-catchers 
flew past, calling shrilly ; this interested him and woke him up. 
He then flew off, but, I fancy, only to the top of the island. He 
seems to be a regular stay-at-home old housekeeper. The sun is 
out now, and the bluebottles are busy in the dirty eyrie, and are 
pestering the young. The latter are still sleeping in a heap; they 
seem chiefly to eat and sleep. One of the larger young, after gaping 
hard and making a “ chipping ’’ noise, has just thrown up a dark 
pellet or casting of undigested feathers and deposited it on the back 
of one of the others! At 9.5 a.m. the Tiercel came down to the 
eyrie without food and tried to tempt the youngsters with feathers 
and scraps of the last blackbird, and ‘‘ yacked”’ when they would 
not take them readily. He then tried to brood them, but as it was 
