IAM uncertain whether the famine incident described in the present chapter was due to the Falcon's resentment of the constant presence of spying strangers at the eyrie, and that she voluntarily absented herself for a time in disgust, or that, having been shot, the Tiercel managed to secure the services of another Falcon as a lady-help. The behaviour of the Falcon, as described in Chapter V.,is no guide, because, as previously explained, for purposes of continuity, although chronologically correct as regards the age of the young, most of the incidents described really occurred in 1910, when the tent was twenty-five feet away, and the birds were therefore not subjected to quite so much intrusive inspection.
F. Heatherley's watch, from 12.30 p.m.. May 24th, to 3.30 p.m.. May 25th.—On relieving Booth I found the youngsters with full crops, except the smaller male. As in 1910, one male is distinctly smaller than the other. One female had her crop so distended that she showed purplish skin bare of down, so that it looked like a goitre. The young soon settled off to sleep, flat on their bellies, with both legs stretched out behind them. Only a young male chose the nest depression, the rest lying with their bodies in the sun and their heads in the shade, either of the mallow leaves or rocks. About 1.30 they woke up and a male and female started preening themselves. At 1.40 p.m, they were fed on a passerine bird, brought in his beak by the Tiercel, who alighting on B transferred the bird to his left talons. At 3.45 there was another feed by the Tiercel. The two young females kept in the background during most of this meal, whimpering in a half-hearted way as if they would eat "an they had room." After this meal he jumped on to C and watched the shed narrowly for eight minutes. He stood there with wings slightly open and every feather smooth, evidently ready for instant flight. As he seemed watching for evidence of life in the shed, I did not venture to train the camera on to him. He has been very nervous all the time, as if Booth had been getting on his nerves. At 4.18 p.m. he brought a partly
The Tiercel with Thrush on B.
Light 8, Plate speed 250, Subject number 100, Stop F8, Exposure 1-25 Sec.
plucked thrush; all these last three passerines have been partly plucked. After this he twice brooded the young for a short time. After the food cry in the distance he came, at 7.7 p.m., with a thrush. All the young were hungry, and they finished it in eight minutes. The young huddled together after this as if for warmth. The down is nearly fully developed now, and they keep their eyes open more. The earholes are still prominent, and when moving in the eyrie they hobble about on their tarsi, not on their talons. There has been no brooding worth mentioning to-day, and he cannot cover them when he tries. About 9 p.m., while changing plates, I heard the Tiercel flop down, and when I looked out, at 9.10, he was standing on B, from which he moved into the eyrie later on. The last I saw of him-he was standing close to the young, with his feathers ruffled out.
Saturday. May 25th—When I awoke and looked out at 4.20 he was standing on C. The first feed was at 4.40 a.m., an unplucked thrush; this lasted them, ten minutes. Afterwards the Tiercel preened on C for a few minutes, and then, as the young whimpered, he got down and tried to brood them. As he sits 'he covers about a third of the family circle. One young female whimpered so persistently that at last he got up and brooded her by herself. The second meal, at 5.45 a.m., off a mangled thrush, lasted thirteen minutes. During this meal he pulled off and offered a female all the primaries of one wing, but she dropped them. Then he gave them all a mouthful of breast feathers in turn. About 8 a.m, he was calling for food for quite ten minutes. At 9.20 he alighted on B with a puffin in his beak. He put it under his talons and looked round. Then he picked it up in his beak again and jumped down into the eyrie. About midday one male and female were very lively, raising themselves and, bobbing their heads forward, peering and scowling like adults. The sixth feed was a puffin, at 3.20 p.m:, in the middle of which the Falcon started the alarm, and the Tiercel immediately began to feed desperately against time, as Booth describes. He shot out of the eyrie- only a few seconds before the relief party appeared.
In Atkinson's watch, from May 25th to May 26th, the only fresh incidents recorded were a meal off a pigeon, early in the morning, which lasted twenty-seven minutes, and when the young were gorged, the Tiercel had a good meal himself. After the meal he carried off the remains. After another meal he stood on B for seventy-five minutes, during the whole of which time he had
a little white feather sticking over one eye and nearly hiding it. On relieving Atkinson, we found a fresh pigeon's foot in the eyrie, bearing an india-rubber ring with a number on it.
During G. A. Booth's watch, from May 26th to May 27th, he noticed one youngster making a meal by himself off a piece of skin he kept under his talons, and on another occasion a youngster got hold of a mallow leaf and tore it up. He also saw a youngster eject a casting.
Brown and I sailed on May 27th to relieve Booth, and while he was helping Booth to remove his gear I searched the top of the island for castings. While doing this. Jim, our boatman, hailed me to draw my attention to the Falcon flying round, pursued by a greater black-backed gull. She flew quietly round in circles, while the gull barked at her and made vicious stoops, which she easily avoided; but there was a great difference in their speed; the gull was like a yacht easily overtaking a lumbering merchantman. The gull, after each stoop, easily recovered herself, and with a few beats of her great wings caught up with the Falcon and stooped again. The Falcon paid no attention, and after five minutes the gull flew away; but apparently not satisfied, it came back presently and renewed its attack; but the Falcon neither retaliated nor paid any attention except just to shift slightly each time the gull stooped. After the gull had gone I climbed down to the eyrie just as the Tiercel arrived and joined the Falcon in calling the alarm. When I got down to the shed I found Booth very upset. He had heard shots early in the morning, and, having seen nothing of the Falcon, was afraid she had been shot. The young were making such a clamour that they neither of them heard me say that both birds were flying round, and as neither they nor Jim noticed the presence of both birds, they went home with great fears that the Falcon had been destroyed. G. A. Booth had not altogether enjoyed his experience. It seems that when he got into the shed he was so taken up with trying to hear all the instructions, given him amid the uproar of the young in the eyrie, that he did not notice how the shed was slung to the rocks above; he only noticed the trestles. Now, his namesake, who weighed about fourteen stone had tried to see all he could while he was
in the shed, and was continually crawling round, using the ventilator-holes and back door to follow the birds when they left the eyrie. He had in this way managed to shift the stones that supported the trestles, so that the shed became unsteady, though safe enough, and so the first time G. A. Booth shifted over to look seawards through the ventilator-holes, he not only saw nothing but sea beneath him, but the shed flopped over with him and gave him a rare start, convincing him that the only safe thing to do was to keep to the landward side of the shed. To make things worse, it blew half a gale during the night, and the rocking of the shed on the unsteady trestles prevented him from getting a wink of sleep. I think he showed great coolness in not getting outside to attend to his safety, although afterwards, when he saw all the arrangements, he laughed heartily at his fears.
F. Heatherley's watch, from 1 p.m. Maynb27th, to 3.30 p.m.. May 28th.—The day being very hot, the youngsters shifted about all the afternoon with the turning sun, to find shade for their heads as they slept. At 4 p.m, the Tiercel pitched on A with a puffin. He screamed the alarm as he flew down, and not a youngster stirred. He stood there silent for five minutes to assure himself that all was well, and then dropped into the eyrie. The young immediately clamoured round him; they seemed very hungry. At 6.10 p.m, the Tiercel pitched silently on B with a gory lump of flesh that might have been half a pound of butcher's meat under his talons, there being nothing else left of the bird. Then he picked it up and, jerking his head forward, peered in all directions with it swinging from his beak, before he dropped into the eyrie. The young are for the first time showing some of the quilled primaries, so they are in the same stage as the young were in 1910, when we first found them. At 8.47 p.m, the Tiercel came silently with what looked like a plucked puffin. The feed lasted twelve minutes; the young were ravenous, and at the finish were quite gory about their beaks. To-day has been very hot, and the heated roof, close to my head, has been very trying. At 9.15 the Tiercel came down on to A and took up his position halfway along it for the night. Twice when I happened to wake in the night and looked out he was standing there in the moonlight.
THE TIERCEL FEEDING YOUNG EIGHT DAYS OLD.
THE TIERCEL FEEDING YOUNG EIGHT DAYS OLD. Light 3, Plate speed 250, Subject number 100, Stop F11, Exposure 1-100sec.
Tuesday, May 28th.—I did not wake till 4.30 a.m., and as all was still in the eyrie and the young asleep in a mass, I dropped off again until 7.10, so probably missed two feeds. At 7.20 he brought a small bird, and at 7.40 a thrush, which he held-in his talons as he dropped into the eyrie. He fed with his back to me, and looked quite dry, but when he afterwards raised his wings and jumped on to C, facing me, he was quite wet and draggled. He had evidently had a bath, but had kept his wings and tail dry. Unfortunately, he gave himself a vigorous shake just as I took him. At 10 a.m. I heard the Tiercel wailing "Way-ee, way-ee." He came on to B without food, and looked very fine as he stood there peering into the eyrie with his body horizontal, so I took him. At
TEN DAYS OLD AND READY TO FIGHT.
10.50 he paid another visit to the eyrie, and stood again in exactly the same attitude. Afterwards on developing the negatives I found that in the first his beak is all covered with down, which has nearly gone in the second. Now, in that of him shaking himself after the last meal the beak is quite clean, so that in the interval he must have had a meal by himself. At each of these visits he dropped into the eyrie and searched for dried scraps for the young, who were getting hungry. After he had gone one female routed out a pigeon's leg, and pecked a long time at the pink claws as if attracted by the colour. Then her sister dispossessed her of it, and tried to swallow it in a hurry. She got it all down, claws first, but it would not stay down, so then she tried to peck it to bits, but happening to take her foot off it a young male, who had been watching his chance, got hold of it and sat down at once with it under his talons, holding it firmly while he tore at it. His sister also tore at it, and once or twice tried to pull it away from him and failed. Later on he stood up and in a careless moment she got it from him. Having lost the leg he picked up a dried piece of mallow stem and just swallowed it in time to prevent the first sister from taking, it, so she watched her sister, and finally got the leg from her and shuffled off behind a rock with it. There was no fighting or screaming in all this; they just grabbed it in an absent-minded way and lost it with as little care. I noticed to-day that one young female stood upon her talons and tried to walk, but fell over. The Tiercel repeatedly called for food between 10.45 and 11.45. The young settled down to sleep, but roused up and whimpered whenever they heard his cries. Something has evidently gone wrong with the feeding, and although I saw both birds after G. A. Booth heard the shots, some other shot elsewhere may have been successful. 12.57 pm.: The young are echoing the Tiercel's cries for food. When whimpering softly their cry is easily distinguished, but when loud is exactly like the adult's. At 1.40 p.m, the young will have been without food for exactly six hours. At 1.15 the Tiercel had been calling continuously for fifteen minutes, sometimes ten calls in a series, and always echoed by the young. If the Falcon is dead it will be interesting to see if the Tiercel does any hunting. At 1.20 I can hear a rock pipit flying about in alarm. I cannot hear the Tiercel's wings, but he may be hunting as he has stopped calling. At 1.30 p.m, he arrived with a whole unplucked puffin. They were simply ravenous, and pressed on him so that he was driven with his back to the wall. Becoming cramped for room he dragged the puffin through the crowd into the right corner of the eyrie. At the beginning of this meal, which lasted twenty-six minutes, he ate several mouthfuls himself, disregarding their convulsive grabs and cries. Once he picked the bird up in his beak as if to leave, but it was only to get more room in the middle of the eyrie. Presently a young female retired hors de combat to the mallow leaves, but still whimpering. She, however, came back to the scramble in a few minutes, and her place by the mallow leaves was taken by a young male, but as his crop seemed by no means full I was not
surprised by his almost immediate return to the family circle. The Tiercel seemed to waste nothing, and gave abundant mouthfuls of feathers all round. One negative was taken specially to show this. It also shows what I did not, notice at the time, the third eyelid giving his eye a filmy appearance. At one time he stopped feeding them, and stepping aside, stood panting with his exertions. I took this also. After the Tiercel had left, the young male who had received least food, began to peck at the puffin's foot as if the colour attracted him, and he lifted the remains up, but, of course, as soon as he opened his mouth to swallow the foot dropped. At 2.25 the Tiercel was crying for food, seconded by the hungry young male. At 2.50 the young male was again attracted by the puffin's orange foot, and tried several times to swallow it. Once he drew himself up to his full height, and I could see that the remains consisted simply of the backbone holding the head, wings and legs together, even the ribs had' gone. I was relieved at 3.30 p.m.
Riley Fortune's watch, from May 28th to May 29th, records grim famine. He saw no food brought during the whole of that time. The Tiercel paid frequent visits, and tried to find scraps in the eyrie with which to feed the young, and during his absence the young hunted hungrily in the eyrie themselves.
During King's watch, from May 29th to May 30th, he records that the young remained asleep until 2.57 p.m., when the Tiercel brought a domestic chicken, the meal lasting fifteen minutes. He came again at 3.57, and fed them on the remains. After this he came several times without food, and the young were very hungry. Thursday. May 30th, the Tiercel came four times without food before 5.54 a.m., when he brought a thrush. He did not apparently catch this himself, as he was calling for food shortly before he brought it. At 6.35 the Falcon brought a bird while the Tiercel was in the eyrie. King was so pleased to see the Falcon that he did not notice what the quarry was. She alighted on B, and transferring the bird to him remained there and watched him feed them. The Tiercel left at 6.45, but returned at 7.5, and resumed feeding. At 7.10 the Falcon brought a thrush into the eyrie, and transferred it.to the Tiercel; she only stayed about a minute. At 7.20 both alighted on the seaward end of A. The Falcon had a thrush in her TIERCEL FEEDING WITH FEATHERS; THIRD EYELID PASSING OVER TIERCEL'S EYE; YOUNG TWELVE DAYS OLD.
TIERCEL FEEDING WITH FEATHERS; THIRD EYELID PASSING OVER TIERCEL'S EYE; YOUNG TWELVE DAYS OLD. Light 3, Plate speed 250, Subject number 100, Diaphragm F8, Exposure 1-100sec.
beak, which she seemed unwilling to give up. Both had hold of the thrush with their beaks and tussled for possession with their wings raised and flapping. King was not able to take this scene as neither camera was trained on the spot, but he says it was a most interesting sight as they stood there against the sky with their wings raised and their feet almost touching as they pulled at the thrush.
This long disappearance of the Falcon gave rise to a good deal of discussion. We could not, of course, tell whether the Falcon that turned up after the interval was the original or another pressed into the service. I am rather inclined to the view that it was a fresh bird, owing to the bold way in which she came into the eyrie, and that the tussle for the thrush showed she required breaking in to her new duties. When Fortune came home and described the young as starving, it was resolved to give them some scraps to go on with until such time as the Tiercel, driven by hunger, hunted for himself, and then probably resume feeding the young. So I took up a freshly-killed puffin and a nestling shag; but when King said that feeding had been resumed, rather than throw them away I placed them conspicuously on the topmost rock of the island.
C. R. Brown next occupied the shed for three hours, during which he recorded three meals off small birds. I relieved him at 4.30 p.m.
F. Heatherley's watch, from May 30th to May 31st.—I took Brown's place at 5 p.m., the puffin and shag being still on the top rock. At 6.45 the Tiercel pitched on A. He stood there calling, and then flopped down into the eyrie with a thrush, but soon left, seeming uneasy, and flying straight out to sea. At 7.10 he came flapping right across the eyrie into the gully leading from the top of the island. After a silence of some minutes he returned the same way and dropped into the eyrie with an intact puffin. I believe that this was the puffin I left on the top rock, as it was gone when I looked, after being relieved, although the shag was as I had placed it. The meal lasted twenty minutes, and at its close he again flew straight out to sea. Looking out for an explanation of his scare, I found that an empty tea-bottle had been left propped against C. I rigged up an extempore pole and noose and was slowly
pulling it in, when the Tiercel started the alarm, so I swung the bottle under the shed. The alarm died down in two minutes, and shortly after he returned and resumed feeding them off the puffin. There was a good deal of yapping, and he ate most of it himself. When I last looked ont, at 9.20 p.m., the young were asleep, but the Tiercel was absent.
Friday. May 31st.—Looking out soon after 3 a.m. I saw an old bird standing motionless in the eyrie close to B. At 3.45, on looking out again, I saw it was the Falcon. She had her eyes closed and she had a patch of white on her head which I had not seen before. This, however, is of no use for identification, as these splashes are generally due to excrement from the young. By 4.30, when the Tiercel arrived with a thrush, the Falcon had disappeared. At 6.10 he brought a small bird. It was a very cold morning, and at 7 a.m, it began to rain. At 7.30 it was pouring, and the Tiercel came down, looking anxious. He stood by the young some minutes and then spread himself over them with extended wings and brooded them until the downpour abated, after about half-an-hour. After one or two visits of inspection, he came at 9.20 a.m, and fed them with a thrush. Each youngster was given a couple of mouthfuls of feathers as a start. Their cheeks are beginning to blacken, and a couple of vertical bands of feathers are showing down their backs. Nothing further appered before {nowrap|G. A. Booth}} came. During his watch from May 31st to June 1st the principal events noted were the appearance of two new birds in the menu, in the shape of lark and hedge-sparrow, and that at one of the meals a young female, after standing up on her talons and flapping er wings, got hold of a large lump of flesh and took it into corner and tore it up as she stood with it under her talons, and hen walked across the eyrie, having been on her talons for five and a-half minutes. My next watch, from June 1st to June 2nd, proved unprofitable, owing to bad weather. I note that the youngsters are beginning to stand more on their talons. June 4th was a very hot day, and in landing I put the half-gallon jar of water down carelessly, and it separated into two. So, after shutting me up. Jim kindly went for more water. Soon after 7 p.m, the eyrie THE TIERCEL SHELTERING YOUNG FOURTEEN DAYS OLD FROM RAIN.
THE TIERCEL SHELTERING YOUNG FOURTEEN DAYS OLD FROM RAIN.
woke to life and the young began to move about. First one and then another lurches unsteadily across the eyrie. But for their heads, they look, with their yellow claws, like hunchbacked, speckled farmyard fowls. Only their thighs are downy now, and with their great, dark, solemn eyes and formidable beaks each looks like a caricature of Mr. Gladstone in short cotton drawers. Their home a slaughter-house, where every meal entails a bird tragedy, there is a grim humour in their appearance. 'They are evidently getting hungry, for presently a big female routs out a bloody skull from somewhere behind the rocks and, holding it under her talons, tears at it for some time and then tries to swallow it. Failing in this, she puts it down and tries to reduce its size. One of the others
THE LORDS OF APPEAL EIGHTEEN DAYS OLD.
YAPPING TO MAKE THEM HURRY. YOUNG FOURTEEN DAYS OLD.
YAPPING TO MAKE THEM HURRY. YOUNG FOURTEEN DAYS OLD.
coming to her and showing too much interest, she lowered both wings to the ground so as to keep her meal quite private. She persevered for a long time; but, turning away for a moment, I miss the end, as when I look again she is gone. I have just been thinking that I have never seen these birds drink any water; considering the position of the eyrie, it is as well that they require none. Then ensues a long wait; the eyrie is deserted even by the flies; twilight comes and the rocks gradually lose their shadows and solid appearance, becoming a ghostly grey, and the whole scene looks unreal. Just as I am despairing, about 9 p.m., of anything further taking place, I hear a great flapping of wings and, looking out, find all the young in the eyrie gazing eagerly seawards, whimpering and flapping their wings. Then suddenly the whimpering grows louder, the wing-flapping more frantic, and for a moment I catch sight of the Falcon standing on B, holding a gory something in her beak, with two little red legs dangling from it—the headless trunk of a puffin. The next moment she is lost among the flapping wings, wings mottled, as it were, with blobs of cotton-wool. As the flapping subsides, I catch sight of her again in the gloaming. She stands facing me with her young around her, and they are all bowing their heads up and down with a subdued chorus of whimpers. As she stands there, taller and darker than her young, with her black cap, she looks like a cowled monk engaged with his acolytes in some mysterious rite. Eagerly pressing on her, they gradually drive her backwards until all are lost to sight under the rocks; but still the whimpering continues. In a few minutes the young crowd into view again, and I perceive the Falcon on C. She has her back to the eyrie, is staring haughtily towards me and pays no attention to the suppliant crowd behind her. Then she is gone, the whimpering dies out, the young go one by one, the gloom deepens into night and I settle down to sleep with the thunder of the breakers as a lullaby, interspersed with the reedy grunting of the shag coming home late to her nest below me. When I awake in the chill dawn to the thunder of the surf, I find the eyrie grey and silent and turn to the comfort of hot tea from a Thermos, from which I am disturbed, at 3.45 a.m., by loud whimpering, and am just in time to see the Falcon, with some effort, dragging a razorbill
up into the eyrie. As the bird is just about her own size, it shows how powerful she is. This time all disappear under the rocks and I see nothing of the feeding. After about ten minutes she appears again, looks sternly in my direction, raises her wings, jumps on to C and, as she stands there for some minutes haughtily ignoring her clamouring young, a gory white feather sticking to her beak quivers disregarded in the cold morning breeze. The wings of the razor-bill have been lying in the eyrie all the morning, and I had intended to identify them at the end of my watch; but at 11 a.m., after the sixth meal, the Tiercel picked them up in his beak, then bent down and transferred them to his talons and, stumbling to the edge of the eyrie, dropped into the air and flew away. At 7.30 p.m. I heard the Tiercel calling, and the young became very excited. This went on without his putting in an appearance. After a time, feathers falling through the air led me to look up, and I found the Tiercel with a puffin under his talons, standing on the top of the rock behind the eyrie. After feeding the young with it he returned to the same spot and stood there for some time with his back turned to me; but his head was never still for many seconds.
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