Minor Tactics with a Goshawk I 
whether it was a Booted Eagle, a Goshawk, or some other large 
Hawk. So I concealed myself carefully under a mass of brambles 
at a point whence I could command a view of the nest and waited 
patiently until near sundown, but the old bird never returned. 
Two days later I revisited the spot and again put the bird off 
and again failed to identify her. It was becoming past a joke for 
I was extremely anxious to make sure of the eggs. I did not 
want to shoot the bird, that panacea for all ornithological doubt 
which has led to the unnecessary slaughter of so many rare birds, 
nor did I feel equal to the task of trapping her, since this might 
involve several troublesome climbs for which I was not strong 
enough. So I did what I should have done sooner—had recourse 
to a stratagem. My various futile attempts at identifying the 
bird had taught me that when she left the nest she invariably 
followed the same course, threading her way at speed between 
the tops of the surrounding trees. Following up this line, | 
shortly came upon an open glade and it at once struck me that 
this must be the route she took when making her retreat unseen. 
The following day I returned to the wood and making a wide 
detour entered the glade about a quarter of a mile from the nest, 
and moved down it cautiously until | could command the point 
whence I reckoned that the bird must emerge after leaving her nest. 
Concealing myself in some scrub not 200 yards from this point I 
sent my Spaniard round with orders to approach the nest from 
the far side, making just sufficient noise to induce the bird to slip 
away quietly. Half an hour had elapsed when I heard my man’s 
voice singing to himself one of the wild cadences known as 
malaguenas, after the custom of his kind when travelling alone, 
next moment a large bird suddenly emerged from the wood through 
the top of the trees to my front at the exact spot I was watching 
and upon reaching the glade dipped downwards until hardly 2 ft. 
above the ground and came skimming right towards me. Next 
