36 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



sitting bird. Although it bumped down in the 

 heather within a few feet of the merhn, she 

 took no notice of it, but sat stubbornly on 

 until I was at last reluctantly compelled to give 

 away my secret by crawling into full view. 



The follo^^^[ng day being Sunday, and having 

 good reason to believe that the mountain falcon 

 would receive some attention from a local pro- 

 fessional collector, I dismantled ni}' tent, and 

 hid everything away in an abrupt decli\'ity not 

 many yards distant. 



Determined to save the bird's eggs from the 

 ruining blast of the blowpipe, I rose at 4.30 next 

 morning, and walking up the hills with a good 

 supply of sandvnches m my pockets, took uj) my 

 station amongst the deep bracken already men- 

 tioned, and waited and watched all day. 



On the ]\Ionday I tried to secure some more 

 pictures of the merlin at home, as nearly all 

 those I had already taken showed movement in 

 the ^^•ind-wa^•ed heather around her. ]\Iy luck 

 had, however, completely forsaken me. After 

 waiting an hour without any sign of the bird, I 

 imagined I heard somebody whistling a popular 

 air, and peeping out of a hole in the cover of 

 my tent, was dismayed to see the small boy I 

 had taken up from a shepherd's house to act as 

 decoyman for me, and whom I had told to return 

 straight home again after I had gone into hiding, 



