History of 
‘ B 
Ihh 
ib. 
■fter resting and tasting for moment, the parent 
would again bend fo.rno.rd and regard his offspring atten¬ 
tively for a brief space, so oare :tly hesitating which one 
to take next . The ch doe aade, the operation just de¬ 
scribed would be exactly repeated. Four young :ere usually 
fed at each visit but sometimes only three aid once, but 
one, ".'he - the number w s less than four, I think the bird 
took «0m* i ft l I "ting off, thought it n-~t aath 
■while to return. In uo instance ere more than four young fed, 
tit$% was served first or not at the next visit 
I had no'means of determining. 
The time which the old bird spent at the nest 
raiely exceeded half— a— minute. On leaving it, he always flew 
straight of1 over the open fields to a distance of at least 
a quarter of a mile beyond which I loot si lit of him behind 
sons trees. His return wan with equal regularity m de by 
way of an or«HbFd (which extends down to the landing from 
the neighboring hillside) and so stealthily that I rarely 
saw him until he came into the tree and sometimes not until 
he a mec.re at the opening to the nest. His bill was always 
closed up to the moment of contact with that of the first, 
young selected nd I could detect no enlargement of the throat 
or other evidence that his mouth contained food. In fact, 
it wee clear enough that he swallow ed all the fo d which he 
obtained during these trios and afterwards supplied it to 
the y ung by a recess of regurgitati on. hat this food 
2 ? 
