66 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



loudly and insistently, till she flies from the ledge. I have the 

 glasses on her, and follow her with them. She crosses the 

 home-gorge, perches on a salient point just above it, and rising 

 again, immediately, as if she saw something, flies back to her 

 own nesting-rock, on the top of which, as she descends upon it, 

 the glasses show me the male, and from him, with the same 

 little grab as the time before, I now see her take, if not actually 

 receive, the prey — it is either from his claws or from the ground 

 just beside them, as he stands, which seems more probable. 

 With it she flies, once more, across the ravine, and coming down 

 amongst a lot of black stones (or cinders) on the slope of the 

 mountain, I see her transfer it from claw to beak and deposit it 

 there. She then flies straight to the nest, bringing nothing, 

 and covers the chicks. The whole episode has taken about a 

 minute. Here then, at last, is the actual ocular proof (though 

 hardly needed) of the male bringing in food for the female, with 

 which both her own needs and those of the chicks are satisfied. 

 If the supply is superabundant, or comes in too quickly, the 

 female apparently leaves it here or there on the ground — what I 

 have seen more suggests this than that there is any special 

 storing-place or larder. If she is hungry and the young have 

 had enough, she makes her meal away from the nest, but other- 

 wise (or perhaps generally in any case) she eats something of 

 what she brings them. That the female is also fed by the male 

 during incubation is probable, for she sits almost constantly, at 

 least during the last part of the time, and there are the same 

 periodical visits, announced by the same twittering cry. Once, 

 too, I have unmistakably seen her devouring something imme- 

 diately or shortly after going off to the male. But that the 

 latter is, at this time, far less assiduous in the bringing in of 

 supplies than after the hatching of the eggs is also apparent. 

 All this corresponds closely with the domesticities of the 

 Sparrow-Hawk, but I have not yet, with these Merlins, seen a 

 transfer of food in the air, though once there was a suggestion 

 of it. With the Sparrow-Hawk this seems to be the ordinary 

 way. This last was the nearest approach to the nest, with his 

 booty, that I have seen the male Merlin make. He once followed 

 the female almost on to the ledge, but he had then already made 



delivery to her. 



(To be continued.) 



