50 How to lunch in private, when others are hungry. 
pulling it in, when the Tiercel started the alarm, so I swung the 
bottle under the shed. The alarm died down in two minutes, 
and shortly after he returned and resumed feeding them off the 
puffin. There was a good deal of yapping, and he ate most of 
it himself. When I last looked out, at 9.20 p.m., the young were 
asleep, but the Tiercel was absent. 
Friday, May 31st.—Looking out soon after 3 a.m. I saw an 
old bird standing motionless in the eyrie close to B. At 3.45, on 
looking out again, I saw it was the Falcon. She had her eyes closed 
and she had a patch of white on her head which I had not seen 
before. This, however, is of no use for identification, as these 
splashes are generally due to excrement from the young. By 
4.30, when the Tiercel arrived with a thrush, the Falcon had dis- 
appeared. At 6.10 he brought a small bird. It was a very cold 
morning, and at 7 a.m. it began to rain. At 7.30 it was pouring, 
and the Tiercel came down, looking anxious. He stood by the 
young some minutes and then spread himself over them with 
extended wings and brooded them until the downpour abated, 
after about half-an-hour. After one or two visits of inspéction, 
he came-at 9.20 a.m. and fed them with a thrush. Each youngster 
was given a couple of mouthfuls of feathers as a start. Their 
cheeks are beginning to blacken, and a couple of vertical bands 
of feathers are showing down their backs. Nothing further 
happened before G. A. Booth came. During his watch from 
May 31Ist to June ist the principal events noted were the 
appearance of two new birds in the menu, in the shape of 
a lark and hedge-sparrow, and that at one of the meals a 
young female, after standing up on her talons and flapping 
her wings, got hold of a large lump of flesh and. took it into 
a corner and tore it up as she stood with it under her talons, and 
then walked across the eyrie, having been on her talons for five 
and a-half minutes. My next watch, from June Ist to June 2nd, 
proved unprofitable, owing to bad weather. I note that the 
youngsters are beginning to stand more on their talons. June 4th 
was a very hot day, and in landing I put the half-gallon jar of water 
down carelessly, and it separated into two. So, after shutting me 
up, Jim kindly went for more water. Soon after 7 p.m. the eyrie 
