322 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
again, so that there was no change upon the nest. The nest, 
therefore, was now empty, and empty it appeared to me to 
remain for the next twenty minutes or so, when, all at once, I 
thought I saw something black moveinit. The classes, however, 
revealed nothing, but five minutes afterwards, having the same 
impression and bringing them to bear quickly, I saw unmistak- 
ably the upturned head and beak of the sitting bird, and I could 
now always see its occasional movements on the nest. One of 
the birds, therefore, has returned unnoticed by me, which I can 
hardly understand, as even when writing the above—in pencil 
and more shortly—I was constantly turning my eyes up to the 
nest. However, the fact is certain. 
At 5.45 the partner bird flies silently to the nest, coming 
from somewhere behind me. I got the glasses on the nest, a 
moment before he went down upon it, so that I saw everything 
clearly. The arriving bird just bent, for a moment, over the 
sitting one, and then flew almost perpendicularly down to the 
eround. All was in silence, as was also the case in the previous 
visit. Some ten minutes later a bird, which I took to be the 
same one, passed a little in front of me, in a drifting manner— 
flying a little sideways, that is—as though searching the ground 
—for the height was but moderate. Ido not think he saw me, 
as I sat motionless at the foot of a baby tree, and a good deal 
concealed by gorse-bushes and other small trees, &¢.—the gorse, 
by the way, which abounds here, is now a most magnificent 
sight. I sat where I was till well past 7 with my eyes fixed on 
the nest almost continuously—never off it but for a few seconds, 
during which they still guarded the neighbourhood—but there 
was no further visit from the partner bird. Several times I saw 
what [ thought to be the latter beating round about at a greater 
height, as though quartering the ground for food, but as, more 
often, there were two birds doing this, I could never be sure 
that it was he, even when I did not see another. There would 
seem to be another pair that have their nest at no great 
distance. 
What is shown in regard to the incubatory habits of Crows 
by the above observations? As I say, it was the bird that flew 
up at about 5 o’clock, that first went off again, leaving the one 
who had been there when he came, still there. As it was dark 
