Page:The peregrine falcon at the eyrie (IA cu31924084757206).pdf/36

 16 a leg, but saw no head. While tearing it up with his beak I could hear its bones crack and snap. Occasionally, when the lump that came away was unusually large, he swallowed it himself, as also happened when it consisted of a large piece of skin or one of the long bones. The puffin afforded more than the young required, and the Tiercel ate steadily himself for the last two or-three minutes and, leaving the carcase unfinished, settled down to brood the young, the meal having lasted sixteen minutes. He had a job to spread himself over them, and as he sat, one or more showed in front. As at 10.30 a.m, the light had considerably improved,.I took one of him at 1-25sec., there being too much movement to make the studio shutter safe, as when he was not moving his head, one of the "young would be sure to be wriggling. With the fifteen-inch lens, at a distance of eight feet his image measured two inches on the screen. At 11 a.m, he looked skywards, hopped on to C and flew round, giving the food cry, but flew down again in a few minutes without any. About 11.30 he came off the young and, jumping on to C, began to preen himself. After a little consideration I risked scaring him, so loosened the camera screw and slowly turned the camera on to him. I found, however, that the shelf was tilted too far backward for this position, so that only the lower half of his body was on the screen. Then I found the floor of the shed littered with spare laths and other things requiring noiseless removal before the shelf-frame could swing forward into a horizontal position. When all was free I found that the bar that fixed the frame in the rack had swelled, and it required some time to get it out. Then, when I had noiselessly swung the shelf forward and fixed it, I found, on focussing, that there was a green blur all over him, which, on removing the focussing screen, resolved itself into a piece of weed dangling in front of the lens. Again I had to risk his displeasure. Putting on my gloves, I cautiously protruded the scissors and snipped the weed off. He merely stopped preening and watched the proceedings with a quizzical expression. After that it was all plain sailing, and feeling that the chance of photographing the Tiercel at a distance of five feet was not an every-day occurrence, I rapidly exposed my last seven plates on him, only waiting once or twice to make sure of the focus. As he did not seem to mind, I wasted no time in being