Abstract
IN the review of the “Handbook of British Birds”, vol. 3, in NATURE of October 21, p. 691, there are some criticisms which require an answer. Some are merely matters of personal experience. ‘S. G.’ has never seen bracken used for nesting by the golden eagle, but others have. Nests in trees have always been a small minority, except in one restricted district. As to the share of the sexes in providing food for the young, H. B. Macpherson, who watched a nest for long periods in 1909, records in his diary no fewer than twenty occasions on which the female brought food to the nest. A. Brook in his diary states that the hen brought a grouse and a young hare to the nest on June 14. While I agree, and have stated in the “Handbook”, that the male takes the chief part in this work, it is impossible to ignore Macpherson's evidence, and ‘S. G.’, to whom I mentioned this fact, could give no explanation of the discrepancy.
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JOURDAIN, F. Birds of Britain. Nature 144, 942 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144942b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144942b0
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