210 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



ahead of me until she imagined she had decoyed me far 

 enough from her brood, when she wheeled back and joined 

 her family. 



The sun was low when we left the hill-top. A Grouse 

 fluttered away at our feet, disclosing a family of ten young 

 chicks, which crouched flat on the ground until they began 

 to feel the cold wind. Then they rose together and, cheep- 

 ing shrilly, ran off in all directions, their progress being 

 so precipitate that they constantly were thrown head over 

 heels, but were off again none the worse the next moment. 

 From patches of " scree " Wheatears chacked their dis- 

 pleasure before taking flight. But the most beautiful 

 sight of the day was, when looking over into the corrie, 

 we saw one of the Peregrines sailing across the face of the 

 rock. The sun glinted full on its plumage, and it was 

 clearly marked against the black rocks, already deep in 

 the shadow of the evening. Backwards and forwards 

 across the rock face the Peregrine circled, dipping and 

 gliding with the poetry of unrivalled flight. Several times 

 it made as though to alight, but for some time yet we 

 saw it till it came to rest on what was probably its roosting 

 ledge. Through the glass I could make out a hollow 

 in the cliff which, from the characteristic white droppings 

 on the rock below, seemed as though it must be the Falcon's 

 eyrie, unless, indeed, the Raven had led forth her young 

 from this point when the spring had yet scarcely reached 

 the hills. 



Not a single Curlew did we hear during this long day 

 on the hill : one missed their vibrating cries in a country 

 which should certainly have harboured a few representa- 

 tives. The air was still as we reached the strath below, 

 and the murmur of the burn carried far to-night. In the 

 glen the sun had already set, but on the hill, now clear of 

 even a trace of cloud, it yet shone with a warm, red glow, 

 while to the nor'-west the sky was of that deep and wonder- 



