172 TEE ZOOLOGIST. 



cable, they seem to be attended with some disposition to build 

 a nest. 



At 12.50 p.m. the female quits the nest and flies to the 

 ravine's edge, where, sitting on a rock, she alternately preens 

 herself and stretches, for nearly ten minutes, then flies over the 

 hill-side to a rock so far away, that, though I follow her on to 

 it, she becomes then almost invisible— I just see her go up from 

 it again and then lose both rock and bird. At 1.15, however, 

 she comes flying back to near where she had before perched, and 

 here she again sets to preening herself. She brings nothing 

 with her and I surmise that her excursion has been an amatory 

 one. After a while she goes up and flies from one place to 

 another in the neighbourhood of her home, settling and preen- 

 ing herself, perhaps, a dozen of times before, at 1.41, she, at 

 last, takes her place on the nest again. The chicks have thus 

 been left for fifty minutes, in which time their mother might 

 easily, one would imagine, have caught something for them, 

 had she wished to, but she has returned without anything. It 

 would appear, therefore, that, as with the Peregrine,* the division 

 of labour, in the care of the young, has become so confirmed in 

 this species that it can no longer be broken through— perhaps, 

 however, I should only say that this seems probable. 



Just after the bird takes her place, it comes on to rain, and 

 it is not till it is clearing, though still raining, that she goes off 

 again. As the flaps of the tent are now closed, except for a 

 narrow aperture, I have to follow her flight with my unaided 

 eyes, which, however, stand me in good stead, for I see her, 

 when far down the slope, make the little dip down, and, at the 

 same time, get an indication of the other bird. As before, 

 having taken her rations, she flies on and I see her again alight, 

 a good way beyond where she received them, but here she 

 becomes indistinguishable from the brown stones about her. 

 Her return to the ledge is preceded by a visit of the male to it, 

 who, however, alights only for a moment, on the ledge, and 



* 'The Peregrine Falcon at the Eyrie,' by Frances Heatherley, p. 63. 

 Mr. F. H. Edrnondson, writing in the ' Naturalist ' for February, says, " Both 

 kill, though the male mostly, the female only once." This is an interesting 

 approximation to my own experience. A process of differentiation is 

 evidently proceeding, which would admit of individual differences. 



