80 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



the troop passes merrily over and along the lines. 

 Even during building operations usually the work 

 of the early morning the birds are frequently 

 absent from their homes for a long period, and, 

 while one is incubating, its fellow may be away 

 for an hour or more. 



Both sexes assist in nest-building, and it is 

 quite fascinating to watch a pair at work. They 

 delight in gathering the wool-tufts which, torn from 

 the fleecy flanks of passing sheep, cling tenaciously 

 to the wiry heather on the breezy mountain sides, 

 and the loving couple will return unerringly, be it 

 a mile or more away, till the store is exhausted, 

 or until they cry "enough." Standing at early 

 dawn on the steep slope of a majestic mountain, 

 I have watched Choughs take material to their 

 citadel in a distant, frowning cliff. That very morn 

 I saw Chough, Peregrine, and Raven in the air 

 together, a spectacle which took me back to the 

 day when Kite, Buzzard, and Raven greeted my 

 eyes in the ever-changeful grey of the Welsh sky, 

 and to when I beheld Short-eared Owl, Merlin, 

 and Hen -Harrier in a similar position above a 

 northern moor. Red-letter moments, these, to the 

 keen bird-lover. 



Choughs are affectionate and amorous. Long 

 after the eggs are laid they pay court to one another. 

 For instance, a pair settle on a boulder or bare 

 patch of soil on the cliff. Then one and pre- 

 sumably the hen (both sexes being similar in 



