Page:The peregrine falcon at the eyrie (IA cu31924084757206).pdf/76

 56 up into the eyrie. As the bird is just about her own size, it shows how powerful she is. This time all disappear under the rocks and I see nothing of the feeding. After about ten minutes she appears again, looks sternly in my direction, raises her wings, jumps on to C and, as she stands there for some minutes haughtily ignoring her clamouring young, a gory white feather sticking to her beak quivers disregarded in the cold morning breeze. The wings of the razor-bill have been lying in the eyrie all the morning, and I had intended to identify them at the end of my watch; but at 11 a.m., after the sixth meal, the Tiercel picked them up in his beak, then bent down and transferred them to his talons and, stumbling to the edge of the eyrie, dropped into the air and flew away. At 7.30 p.m. I heard the Tiercel calling, and the young became very excited. This went on without his putting in an appearance. After a time, feathers falling through the air led me to look up, and I found the Tiercel with a puffin under his talons, standing on the top of the rock behind the eyrie. After feeding the young with it he returned to the same spot and stood there for some time with his back turned to me; but his head was never still for many seconds.