236 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



in the morning, it was about 1 1 p.m. when we got 

 back to the hotel. 



Some little time after this I made a second visit 

 to the same spot in the hopes of being able to come 

 across the male bird, but never saw anything of him, 

 and it was evident that he had deserted the place. 

 There was one other nest that my ghillie and I had 

 found in the meantime, and as we had unfortunately 

 failed in our attempt to get the male over the first 

 nest, we were reluctantly obliged to make use of the 

 second to attain our object ; the one redeeming 

 feature being the great probability there would be 

 of matters being equalised somewhat by the widower 

 of the first nest mating with the prospective widow 

 of the second ; indeed, the fact of hawks if deprived 

 of a mate finding another within a very short space 

 of time seems to be pretty well established, — at any 

 rate it appears to be so with the Peregrine Falcon, 

 for I have been told that the male of this species 

 takes only about twenty-four hours to find a female 

 should he have accidentally become a widower. 



Thus, paying a visit to the first nest and failing, 

 we made a long desultory tramp across the moors 

 to where we knew the other to be. 



This was in a bank of heather, and the female 

 was sitting on her eggs. We didn't disturb 

 her. By the side of this bank there was a 

 natural dip in the moorland, running uphill some 

 distance, the whole being covered with heather — 

 just the sort of place to lie up in. Spreading 

 out my waterproof, and getting my gun fixed up all 



