THE NEST ON THE GREY CRAG 117 



dart towards us. It was an exciting 

 experience to sit on that narrow ledge, 

 with this large bird darting down towards 

 us, and on one or two occasions the bird 

 came alarmingly near. The gamekeeper 

 made the suggestion that if he tied a red 

 pocket-handkerchief at the end of a fish- 

 ing rod and held this in front of the 

 nest, it might make the almost fully 

 fledged young call out, and so bring the 

 old bird in a convenient position for 

 photographic purposes. This little sug- 

 gestion of his worked even better than 

 he anticipated, for the instant the mother 

 heard her young call, she came down at 

 a most tremendous speed towards the 

 man, struck him upon his head with her 

 claws and knocked his hat over the edge 

 of the cliff! This was the only time that 

 the bird really struck us, but for the 

 whole of the three hours she was swoop- 

 ing at us. The male bird was not quite 

 so bold as his mate ; he contented himself 



