FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 171 



out our scheme, gave us not only a permission, 

 but an enthusiastic assistant, who comman- 

 deered Mr. MacCullum, the chief woodman of 

 the estate. Thereafter we were merely specta- 

 tors, as the two experts settled precisely what 

 to do and how to do it, what labour and 

 materials were necessary, and that 27th June, 

 5 a.m., should be the day and time. Captain 

 J. J. Condon, of Poole, and Messrs. Burt and 

 Vick, of Poole, kindly lent us between them 

 two ladders and an ample supply of cables 

 and scaffold ropes. With the aid of two 

 woodmen and Head Keeper Wren, under 

 Mr. MacCullum's supervision, the tree was 

 cut off sixteen feet from the ground, the top 

 lifted and slung 35 yards into an open space, 

 replanted, and the young replaced in the nest 

 now in a light position 10 feet or so from the 

 ground, instead of 27 feet as before. The 

 weight of the top, even after some of the super- 

 fluous greenery that was " out of the picture " 

 had been removed, was estimated at two tons. 

 It was no mean feat, therefore, to move this 

 from 16 feet above ground to ground level,, and 

 then 35 yards along, without damaging the 

 nest in any way, because a Sparrow Hawk's 

 nest is mainly dead sticks somewhat loosely 

 put together. W.P.C. and E.H.C. are perfectly 

 confident that, without Mr. Meaby and Mr. 

 MacCullum, they would have made an absolute 

 hash of the job. The nest was subjected to 

 close observation by Dr. Penrose, E.H.C. , and 

 W.P.C. The following is a condensed transcript 

 of the notes, the observer's initials standing first. 

 June 28 7 a.m. Put up W.P.C.'s tall tent, top height 

 8 feet from the tree this took 1| hours 

 to get it all secured. W.P.C., who had not 



