. British birds. Birds. VOL. XV.] HABITS OF SPARHOVV-HAWK. 77 that all the sides were good enough. We therefore deter- mined to give up all the time we could to this nest. At first the bird was very shy and remained so until some four days after the hut was covered, and then she was wonderfully easy to deal with. She, too, is a young bird, but in excellen condition. Eggs very white with very good black blotchei Laid. Chipped. Hatched. 1 May 13 ? Jnne 22 June 25 2 ,.15 Found broken outside nest Jime 5. 3 ,,17 June 24 June 25 4 ,. 19 ,, 22 ,, 2O No. 3 was not chipped when I entered the hut 4
. British birds. Birds. VOL. XV.] HABITS OF SPARHOVV-HAWK. 77 that all the sides were good enough. We therefore deter- mined to give up all the time we could to this nest. At first the bird was very shy and remained so until some four days after the hut was covered, and then she was wonderfully easy to deal with. She, too, is a young bird, but in excellen condition. Eggs very white with very good black blotchei Laid. Chipped. Hatched. 1 May 13 ? Jnne 22 June 25 2 ,.15 Found broken outside nest Jime 5. 3 ,,17 June 24 June 25 4 ,. 19 ,, 22 ,, 2O No. 3 was not chipped when I entered the hut 4 June 24th, and was most decidedly chipped when I emerged an hour later. None of the eggs looked at all like hatching that night. This bird did not begin to sit until she had laid her last egg. When I visited the nest on i\Iay i8th the eggs were stone cold and never afterwards. The incubation period is amazingly long. According to the above observations it is 37 days for two eggs and 38 for the other. The chipping period too is very variable, one egg being chipped for less than twenty-four hours and one for approximately four days. I expected the eggs to begin chipping on June 19th, and wc got very nervous that we had kept the bird off too long and ruined the eggs. We were very glad to be able to feel and hear the chicks inside the shells each day, but got very anxious as the days went by and no sign of chipping appeared. Even then we were afraid that with the great heat and drought they would be unable to get free. The old bird seemed very anxious too, and I saw her nibbling at the eggs more than once on June 24th. On June 25th the unhatched egg had got quite a hole broken away in the shell. The chicks, how- ever, were all fine and strong when they came out, and fed well enough when I saw them receive a meal on June Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of t
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