34 No. A470 meets a bolt from the blue. 
minutes. The young huddled together after this as if for warmth. 
The down is nearly fully developed now, and they keep their eyes 
open more. The earholes are still prominent, and when moving 
in the eyrie they hobble about on their tarsi, not on their talons. 
There has been no brooding worth mentioning to-day, and he cannot 
cover them when he tries. About 9 p.m., while changing plates, 
I heard the Tiercel flop down, and when. I looked out, at g.10, he 
was standing on B, from which he moved into the eyrie later on. 
The last I saw of him-he was standing close to the young, with 
his feathers ruffled out. 
Saturday, May 25th—When I awoke and looked out at 4.20 
he was standing on C. The first feed was at 4.40 a.m., an unplucked 
thrush; this lasted them. ten minutes. Afterwards the Tiercel 
preened on C for a few minutes, and then, as the young whimpered, 
he got down and tried to brood them. As he sits he covers about 
a third of the family circle. One young female whimpered so 
persistently that at last he got up and brooded her by herself. The 
second meal, at 5.45 a.m., off a mangled thrush, lasted thirteen 
minutes. During this meal he pulled off and offered a female 
all the primaries of one wing, but she dropped them. Then he 
gave them all a mouthful of breast feathers in turn. About 
8 a.m. he was calling for food for quite ten minutes. At 9.20 
he alighted on B with a puffin in his beak. He put it under his 
talons and looked round. Then he picked it up in his beak again 
and jumped down into the eyrie. About midday one male and 
female were very lively, raising themselves and. bobbing their heads 
forward, peering and scowling like adults. The sixth feed was 
a puffin, at 3.20 p.m., in the middle of which the Falcon started 
the alarm, and the Tiercel immediately began to feed desperately 
against time, as Booth describes. He shot out of the eyrie only 
a few seccnds before the relief party appeared. 
In Atkinson’s watch, from May 25th to May 26th, the only 
fresh incidents recorded were a meal off a pigeon, early in the 
morning, which lasted twenty-seven minutes, and when the young 
were gorged, the Tiercel had a good meal himself. After the meal 
he carried off the remains. After another meal he stood on B 
for seventy-five minutes, during the whole of which time he had 
