170 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



long and careful examination, yesterday, I could detect none, 

 either there or on the ledge. I have, however, plainly seen the 

 viscera being picked out of its containing framework, as also 

 what must, I think, have been a whole dead bird. Yet I have 

 never seen the bird take anything away with her from the nest 

 nor are the excreta ejected from it in defsecation. 



7.40. — Bird flies to opposite side of gorge, and preens herself 

 on a small rock or stone, but in less than a minute flies back 

 and continues to do so on the nest. At a minute or two past 

 8 she goes off, again, and flies down the slope above the opposite 

 side of the ravine. In her descent she skims gradually nearer 

 the ground, and, over the brow of one of its sinuosities, makes a 

 dip at something which might be a brown stone and then flies 

 on. The glasses discover the brown object to be the male 

 Merlin. To assure myself of this, I have to lose sight of the 

 female, but she shortly flies up from another point on the slope, 

 and passes me, not appearing to carry anything. As soon as 

 she perches, however, on the brow of the gorge, facing her nest, 

 I see something considerable in one of her claws, and with this, 

 the next moment, she flies to the nest. As before, it appears to 

 be a ball or bundle of the viscera, and again she holds it in the 

 left claw. The feeding takes six minutes, and, at the end of it, 

 she broods the chicks. She certainly seems now really to cover 

 them, spreading out her pectoral feathers widely around them, 

 and drooping her wings. When flying, this last time, she, as 

 before, bent up her shanks so that what she carried was not 

 distinctly discernible amidst the feathers into which it was 

 pressed. At 9.12 she goes off again and flies to a point on the 

 downward slope of the mountain — the usual direction in which 

 she goes. I there get the glasses on her, and when she flies up 

 again, which is almost immediately, follow her with them right 

 on to the male Merlin, at another point lower down, for she 

 comes into sharp contact with him, causing him to make a little 

 pitch forward, and, grabbing eagerly at something, flies on a 

 little further with it, and then again goes down. It is all so 

 quick that it is difficult to take in every detail, but the grab 

 must have been at something, over and, probably, on which the 

 male stood. He must have been surprised, for a moment, as she 

 came up from behind, but no doubt instantly understood and 



