168 BIRD LIFE ON ISLAND AND SHORE 
foney i tiling and erubling for he funy 
less arduous fashion x Aca ne Sy eae 
. - Un one of the boughs of 
my ironwood she preened her feathers very care- 
fully and thoroughly ; then, immediately below 
me, searched the ferns growing there, hopping 
leisurely from log to log, peering among the green 
leaves, or, like a woodpecker, inspecting every 
chink and cranny and bit of tattered bark. Nor 
was a vegetable diet scorned: she partook of 
several snacks of the fruit of blueberry and five- 
fingers. She then returned to her nest, where I 
was in time to see her loosening the structure of 
its sides by diving her great beak up to its hilt 
into the material, opening her mandibles wide, 
and thus prizing it apart. She then moved away 
a twig or two, and at long-last was settling her- 
self on to the nest when the male arrived. The 
good-tempered fellow, who had been labouring 
while she played, was greeted with harsh cries 
and snappings of her bill. With an overflowing 
beakful of soft maggots he was made to await 
her caprice for some minutes. Finally, she deigned 
to allow him to give to the chicks a portion of 
what he had gathered and brought home. 
In front of another nest on another occasion 
T have seen another male watch, with the pathetic 
look of a chidden spaniel wishing to be forgiven, 
for a chance of himself feeding his own ofispring, 
