100 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



their eyrie, the hen bird took flight easily within range, 

 and he fired both barrels at her. She fell almost to the 

 ground, but managed to recover herself and to make her 

 escape, though it was evident that she was very hard 

 hit. The keeper was about to climb to the nest when he 

 saw the wounded bird coming back, and it was clear that 

 she intended to return to her eggs immediately he per- 

 mitted it. The man therefore took his departure, intending 

 to return later and to make sure of her. 



Three days later he again visited the place, at which 

 the falcon flew out from the shelf above. He fired, and 

 the bird fell dead at his feet, though he was much surprised 

 to find that it was the tercel. He waited till dusk for the 

 hen bird, but as she did not appear he cHmbed to the 

 nest in order to obtain the eggs. 



Here a greater surprise awaited him, for he found the 

 hen bird seated serenely on her eggs in a lifelike attitude, 

 but stone dead ! She had been dead for a considerable 

 length of time — in fact, everything pointed to the fact 

 that she had returned to her nest to die immediately after 

 he had fired at her three days ago. 



The remarkable part about this incident was not so 

 much in the wounded bird returning to her eggs as it 

 was in the fidelity of the tercel remaining at his mate's 

 side for so long after life had left her. One cannot doubt 

 that these birds understand death, so it must have been 

 the highest of motives that held him there. 



In the same country a keeper of my acquaintance one 

 day climbed to a peregrine's eyrie in order to examine 

 its contents, and found that it contained one chick just 

 old enough to have left the nest and to squat on a shelf 

 near by. Both parent birds were wheeling and screaming 

 overhead in a state of great agitation. The man left 

 the chick undisturbed, but on the following day the 

 shooting tenant expressed a desire to see the chick, so 



