84 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



containing five pale-blue eggs. As we were watching 

 some of the birds, a merhn {F. a:saIon) suddenly 

 swooped down and snatched one away in its talons. 

 Breeding occasionally on these fells, this handsome 

 and smallest of our falcons is fully as bold and 

 courageous as any of its congeners, and I have seen 

 it attack both partridge and ring-ousel with success. 

 It has never yet been my good fortune to procure 

 any local specimens of the merlin's egg, nor of the 

 hen harrier's (C cyanus), which also sometimes 



noticed that many are much scratched and smeared, 

 as if the colouring matter were very soft, when laid 

 and had been rubbed off in extrusion. We found 

 scores of grouse eggs sucked by the carrion crow 

 (C. corone), and scattered here and there. The crow 

 is a great destroyer of other birds' eggs as well. It 

 breeds not uncommonly on these hills, usually in 

 some secluded clough, where the fork of a fir or 

 mountain ash affords a resting-place for the large 

 nest of sticks and twigs, snugly cushioned with wool, 



Fig. 57- — Water Ousels (Cinclus aqiiaticnsj. 



breeds here, and a pair ot which we saw during the 

 day, hunting over the sides of Largdon Fell. 



When fairly amongst the heath we soon heard the 

 loud laugh-like cry of the red grouse (Z. Scoticus), 

 as one after another rose close to our feet, and 

 whirred on rapid wing down the mountain-side. 

 Many nests of this beautiful bird did we stumble 

 upon during the day ; a great proportion of the eggs 

 being " hardsat," and bereft of much of their natural 

 beauty by being soiled. The eggs are very beautiful, 

 and variable in colour and markings, and I have 



F'g- 59- — Golden Plover (Charadrias pluvialis), 



in which are laid the four or five greenish eggs, 

 mottled with greenish ash and light brown. It is 

 always called " raven " by the shepherds, and they 

 look upon this fierce and cunning bird as a great pest, 

 for not unfrequently it pecks out the eyes of sickly 

 sheep and weakly lambs. Years ago, when it was an 

 object with me to add eggs of both raven and crow 

 to my collection, I was induced by the news of a 

 "raven's" nest being found in a distant part of the 

 hills to make a special journey thereto, but I had my 

 trouble for nought, beyond satisfying myself that the 



