Page:The peregrine falcon at the eyrie (IA cu31924084757206).pdf/68

 48 beak, which she seemed unwilling to give up. Both had hold of the thrush with their beaks and tussled for possession with their wings raised and flapping. King was not able to take this scene as neither camera was trained on the spot, but he says it was a most interesting sight as they stood there against the sky with their wings raised and their feet almost touching as they pulled at the thrush.

This long disappearance of the Falcon gave rise to a good deal of discussion. We could not, of course, tell whether the Falcon that turned up after the interval was the original or another pressed into the service. I am rather inclined to the view that it was a fresh bird, owing to the bold way in which she came into the eyrie, and that the tussle for the thrush showed she required breaking in to her new duties. When Fortune came home and described the young as starving, it was resolved to give them some scraps to go on with until such time as the Tiercel, driven by hunger, hunted for himself, and then probably resume feeding the young. So I took up a freshly-killed puffin and a nestling shag; but when King said that feeding had been resumed, rather than throw them away I placed them conspicuously on the topmost rock of the island.

C. R. Brown next occupied the shed for three hours, during which he recorded three meals off small birds. I relieved him at 4.30 p.m.

F. Heatherley's watch, from May 30th to May 31st.—I took Brown's place at 5 p.m., the puffin and shag being still on the top rock. At 6.45 the Tiercel pitched on A. He stood there calling, and then flopped down into the eyrie with a thrush, but soon left, seeming uneasy, and flying straight out to sea. At 7.10 he came flapping right across the eyrie into the gully leading from the top of the island. After a silence of some minutes he returned the same way and dropped into the eyrie with an intact puffin. I believe that this was the puffin I left on the top rock, as it was gone when I looked, after being relieved, although the shag was as I had placed it. The meal lasted twenty minutes, and at its close he again flew straight out to sea. Looking out for an explanation of his scare, I found that an empty tea-bottle had been left propped against C. I rigged up an extempore pole and noose and was slowly