Northern Observations of Inland Birds 27 



speed towards the rushes, but the majority, having had 

 one good look at the birds of prey, would proceed in- 

 differently with their daily affairs. The grey hens in the 

 birch grove would crane their necks as the buzzards 

 first arrived, then continue their feeding, while the 

 heron in the reeds would glance skywards a time or two, 

 shifting from one leg to the other, then go on with his 

 fishing. And all the time the buzzards were circling 

 and hovering overhead. 



One day, however, a peregrine flew over the loch. He 

 did not circle or hover, but shot straight by at an altitude 

 of four or five hundred feet, his heart, apparently, in the 

 Highlands. But never in my life have I seen such a 

 mad stampede among the wild fowl. Hundreds of birds 

 rose awing, flying pellmell for the rushes, while scores 

 sought immediate refuge by diving. This fact convinced 

 me, as it would have convinced anyone, that wild birds 

 are as well able to discriminate between the various birds 

 of prey as are we ourselves. 



Again, in the same locality, one early spring morning, 

 I was watching a whole flight of buzzards — six or seven 

 of them — circling and gHding over some crags, while 

 their thin-edged " kew-kew " came wafting down to me, 

 when directly beneath them I noticed a cock grouse, 

 scraping and challenging, and accompanied by his hen 

 bird, both of them entirely indifferent to the presence of 

 the birds of prey. I said to my companion : " That 

 seems to disprove the theory that grouse are so terrified 

 of buzzards that they may leave the moor." He answered : 

 '* I have observed the same thing repeatedly.*' 



It may be argued that if game birds are so afraid of a 

 kite flown over them by shooters that they will not rise 

 till almost under the feet of the sportsman, it must follow 

 that they are equally afraid of, or at any rate, disturbed by, 

 an object in the heavens which much more closely 



