is very greedy, and seems to get more than the other; but getting dark now. A bird (I think the partner) flies near quaw-eeing.
9.20.—Bird leaves chicks.
9.25.—Bird back on stump. Too dark now to see which one, though I believe it to be the hen. However, I get outline of beak against the sky, and it is not broken by anything projecting from it. In a minute bird flies down and feeds chicks in the usual way, her actions being almost exactly those of a Dove. Both chicks, I think, are fed, but too dark to be sure. It is the old bird, I feel sure, that makes the croodling noise. The chicks have a plaintive, piping note, and the two notes are often being made at the same time. The croodling is always made by the old bird when the chicks want to be fed, but she has nothing for them. Equally therefore when she feeds and does not feed them, so that my inference to the contrary was wrong.
9.35.—Croodling again, meaning that chicks are trying to be fed. The chicks begin now to hold up their wings, and wave or flap them more than at first.
9.40.—A bird (doubtless the partner) flies close by quaw-eeing, and the other bird flies from chicks. The partner then settles near and "churrs" softly for a moment, then flies to chicks, feeds them, and instantly flies away. I thought I recognized the dark bird's voice—the male's, as I take it to be. It is not likely that the hen, after flying off, would have returned almost instantly and fed the chicks again. Moreover, since the eggs have hatched out I have not heard her "churr."[1]
Left at 9.45. Both birds away.
July 6th.—Arrived at 8.40 p.m., and found chicks alone quite three feet nearer to me than the original place where the eggs were.
8.44.—Hen bird perched on elder-stump. Held nothing in beak. The light good. She opened and shut her beak once, and I saw the light between the mandibles. Wings, when thus perched, reached very nearly to end of tail; would do quite, I think, were they straight instead of the tips curved towards—sometimes crossing—each other.
8.47.—Bird flies to chicks and feeds them in the usual way.
- ↑ After the hatching of the eggs the hen bird never greeted the male with a soft "churr" as he came up, or, indeed, paid any attention to him. This is human!
