Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/537

Rh behave, and then my advent caused immediate alarm. Both the male and female Kites would hover about excitedly just above my head, and if I approached, however cautiously, too near the spot where the nest was, they swooped down quite close to me, as if threatening to attack.

The male bird invariably sat on the terrace, probably keeping sentry over the nest against possible invaders of its kind. I have never found it in closer proximity to the nest. At certain times in the day it was not there, being away most probably in search of food. I have noticed the absence of the female too for short periods, doubtless on the same errand as its mate.

On the morning of the 4th February, i.e. after an incubation of about three weeks' duration, I found that one egg was hatched. The young one was somewhat larger than a newly-hatched chicken. It had the usual amount of downy feathers, of an ashy hue, distributed over the body. The beak was very prominent, exhibiting markedly the characteristic curve of its species. When any kind of noise was made within its hearing it would feebly flutter its tiny wings, and behave as do young birds when a morsel is offered to them. The mother-bird was generally away in the mornings in search of food—a fact I knew from the circumstance that upon its return I invariably found bits of bone and other offal lying near the nest. The male was always somewhere near during these intervals of absence of its mate, for no sooner did I show myself at the window, then it would appear hovering about in front of the nest in a threatening manner, and, with its shrill piercing tones, endeavour to frighten me away. This it would never desist doing until I disappeared.

On the morning of the 7th I found the other egg was hatched, i.e. on the third day after the first one. This bird was smaller than its companion, which was all the difference that could be traced, and it appeared that they did not show nearly so much vitality as the young of other birds do directly after they have emerged from their eggs. They were usually to be seen nestled together asleep, and only when being fed or disturbed did they utter their feeble cries. I was not able to determine exactly whether the mother fed its young at regular