Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/519

Rh the other, the hen) returned, and both chicks were fed by the regurgitatory process. The light, I am glad to say, was amply sufficient, and there could not be the smallest doubt. The chicks were thus fed several times—four or five times. A minute or two after feeding the chicks, and before flying away, the old bird opened, twice in succession, its enormous beak, or rather mouth. Quite a revelation; it looked as if it opened its head. The other bird had also done this, but neither of them before to-night whilst under my observation. They also moved their bills in much the same way as we do our lips after having swallowed something, and still having the taste of it in the mouth. The old birds could not have fed the chicks two or three times in succession, as they did, with anything they brought in their beaks; nor did I ever observe them to have anything in the beak, which I am sure I should have done had this been the case. Moreover, I observed the swelling and subsiding of the throat, suggesting the pumping of something through it.

9.5.—Bird flew off. In about a minute both birds flew up, and, I think, settled near on ground; then flew off again. The two birds now sported close by in the air, one of them uttering a note like "quick quick, quick quick"—a kind of loud modified twitter.

9.10.—Bird flew up and perched on same elder stump as night before, then almost at once flew to chicks and fed them as before. The light was now fast fading, but it seemed to me as if both the chicks had their beaks in the old bird's mouth at the same time, as with Doves. This, of course, may be a mistake, or it may have been due merely to the eagerness of the chicks. (This would explain the origin of the habit.)

9.25.—Bird rose suddenly, and flew away in silence. About a second afterwards bird flew down on to young, and churred slightly for a moment, then uttered the little croodling note of content. I could just see the lighter coloured bodies of the chicks in motion, and have no doubt they were being fed as before, but too dark to see it or anything.

9.35.—Bird perched on same elder stump, upon which the other bird left the chicks, this time quaw-eeing when it got a little way off. A second or two afterwards bird on stump flew down to young.