The Nesting of the Lesser Gieii-lleadvd fluan. 31 
hen to inspect it, and both birds cliuckk'cl with satisfaction. 
The cock spent most of liis time during the next fortnight 
k'isurely arranging the materials, but the hen did not appear 
to be very interested, and only inspected his work occasionally. 
1 never saw any courting display except that both birds 
fi'e4uently raised their tails, spread fan -wise into a perpendicular 
position. They were not particularly aggressive at this time, 
but would not tolerate any other large bird in the vicinity of 
their nest, and were I'atlicr vindictive towards a pair of Cali- 
foi'nian Quail. 
On the afternoon of May 3rd I saw the hen deposit 
her first egg in the nest at 5 o'clock, the second one was laid 
on the 5th, and on the 7th she commenced to incubate after 
laying the third. 
She sat very patiently, only coming off tlie nest for 
food, and returning immediately. The cock never took a turn 
at incubation; he usually .sat dozing on a branch near the nest. 
He never fed her while she was sitting, but he would often call 
her off the nest, to give her some tit -bit that he had discovered. 
1 began to be impatient after the hen had incubated 
for 2'J days, and fearing something was wrong, I tested the 
eggs, and found all three to be addled; probably owing to 
one or two rather sharp frosts, which occurred soon after 
incubation commenced. I tried to blow the eggs, but the 
shells were so extremely thick and hard, that the drill would 
not penetrate, without Ijeing given a hard tap. I broke two 
of them and was only fairly successful with tlie third. The 
white shells are very absorbent and quickly become stained. 
Nothing further happened until July 8th, when I saw 
them pair, and later that day the cock was busily repairing 
the nest. The first egg was laid on the 12th, and the hen 
agaili commenced to incubate three eggs on the 16th. 
All three eggs hatched on the morning of August 11th, 
making the incubation period 26 days. I did not see the 
young ones descend from the nest, but judging from the great 
development of the flight feathers, their wings would be of 
great assistance to them in reaching the ground. 
The chicks are very large and active birds when fli'st 
hatched, and appear to be much larger than the eggs, which 
probably accounts for the extreme hardness and thickness of 
