74 BIRD LIFE ON ISLAND AND SHORE 
still the parent birds were responding to their 
solicitations. Certainly it was difficult to imagine 
where first families had sprung from, for how 
could we have missed the foremost batch of nests 
so common on the island ? 
Our first solution of the puzzle was, however, 
soon discarded as untenable. Watching at the 
distance of a few feet, it became apparent that the 
birds busily flying to and fro were not expectant, 
tantalised, recently abandoned first-brood young- 
sters; indubitably they were mature specimens 
of the breed. More leisurely observation, too, 
established the fact that the insects transferred 
from beak to beak by birds, at first inclined to 
be somewhat shy of the camera, were not imme- 
diately devoured as would have happened in the 
case of ravenous, growing fledglings. The food 
relinquished by the shyest member or members 
to others less timid was in all cases conscientiously 
carried forward, and placed in the gaping mouths 
of the newly hatched clutch of not many days’ 
growth. We soon in fact discovered that our 
first nest under the camera was being run by at 
least three birds—four, we believed. ‘Three were 
easily identified at one and the same moment 
by the difference in quality and appearance ot 
food carried, by the different manner in which 
the legs and wings of moths, &c., lay in the bills 
of the respective birds. The identity of the 
