Page:The peregrine falcon at the eyrie (IA cu31924084757206).pdf/40

 20 think all this rather far-fetched I recommend them to watch such wild birds at close quarters. I do not mean the broken-spirited wretches one sees in zoos. Then he raised his wings and hopped on to C, and preened himself for twenty-two minutes in strong sunshine. I evidently missed seeing a lot while I was getting the shelf straight, but, fortunately. King on a subsequent occasion filled in the gaps. The Tiercel shook and fluffed himself out and buried his head among his breast feathers, occasionally cocking his head round, and with a child-like expression, partly due to his half-closed eyes, he called to the Falcon for food. Then he sneezed two or three times, scratched his nose with one claw, and lifted each talon in tum with outspread toes, peeling bits off them with his beak. Then he brought both feet down and raised his wings high above his head, looking at me with a "what-do-you-think-ofthis?" expression. Then for a long time he stood on one foot, generally the right, with the other nearly hidden among his breast feathers, and dozed. Then as the young began to whimper he jumped down and brooded them with his back turned to me.

About 2.20 p.m, the Falcon gave the alarm, and the Tiercel flew off, but returned in a few minutes, pitching on A, and walking down it to the eyrie, where he resumed brooding. At 3.5 p.m, the Falcon called the alarm, and the Tiercel flew off; the alarm soon ceased, and the Falcon came down on to A and stood there a short time. She is not nearly so yellow about the breast as he is. His is quite creamy, whereas hers is an ashen white. The Tiercel kept calling to her, but she soon flew away, and he returned to resume his brooding till 3.30, when she again called the alarm, and he, flying off, joined her in calling it, and a few minutes' later the arrival of my friends brought my watch to an end.

took the next watch, from May 21st to May 22nd, and his observations are pretty well a repetition of what I have described. took the watch from May 22nd to May 23rd, and he records that the Tiercel has difficulty in covering young when brooding, owing to their rapid growth. At a meal at 4.50 p.m., when the Tiercel brought a blackbird, he gave one youngster a whole leg with the foot and claws, and when it could not swallow the foot he snipped the protruding part off with his