Page:The peregrine falcon at the eyrie (IA cu31924084757206).pdf/85

 Rh thought it quite possible that it might be discovered in the egg. Confirmation of this view reaches me while revising these sheets, in a letter from King, who says he visited the eyrie on April 9th, 1913, and found three eggs, one of which was larger than the others and weighed fifty-eight grains more, the difference between the two small eggs being not more than a grain. Notwithstanding their liveliness in getting to the front when feeding was going on, and the fact that the Tiercel always seemed to take care that the males got enough, yet one always seemed to fare the worst, so that at the end of their stay in the eyrie, though there was no perceptible difference between the two females, one of the males might always be singled out as the Benjamin of the family.

In 1911, owing to there only being two, the increased allowance of food led, as in the case of ravens, to their more rapid development. It was on an occasion when the Falcon dropped a hen blackbird into the eyrie, and after watching for a minute or two flew away, that I got the only evidence I have seen of the sense of taste. The young female, after eating steadily for some minutes, at last got to the intestines. Then I saw her pass a loop through her beak, snapping her mandibles as if tasting it and then, dropping it, she shook her head and retired behind a rock. There must have been something wrong about this blackbird, for the young male, who immediately dragged it into a corner, after eating for ten minutes, came to the front and was violently sick three or four times, bringing up a little red casting each time. I got no evidence of the sense of smell, and although Dr. Penrose has lately given an example of its use in the stone curlew, I have never been able to satisfy myself of birds becoming aware of my presence by its means. The most striking example was when, in a hiding tent by a marshy mud flat, with the wind behind me, black-headed gulls, a peewit and a curlew walked past without becoming aware of my presence. Quite different was the behaviour of two sheep that strayed that way; each, as it got my scent, sniffed, threw up its head and hurried away. I have blown tobacco smoke at a golden