192 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



in the region of the pinion bone. The wonder 

 is it was not shattered. The two assailants are 

 low enough for me to hear the swish of the 

 Peregrine's rush through space and the sound of 

 the hlow on the Eagle's stiff pinions, to see a few 

 small brown feathers from the latter 's carpal joint 

 floating aimlessly in the void. Now, at last, is 

 the Falcon content to abandon the fray and sail 

 seawards. This is the only occasion on which I 

 have ever seen a Peregrine actually strike an Eagle, 

 though mock skirmishes are of frequent occurrence 

 when the two bandits meet. 



Moreover, nearly every bird of any size mobs 

 the Eagle, which, for all his fine presence, is at 

 heart a coward, or seems to be one. A pair of 

 Ravens for instance, one thrusting with his iron 

 bill from below, his fellow attacking strongly from 

 above, can give the royal bird many a bad 

 moment; while Choughs, both singly and in 

 parties, as well as Merlins and Kestrels and 

 especially the former find extreme pleasure in 

 such make-believe combats. Then the Eagle may 

 even cry out in alarm or from annoyance. 

 Otherwise, it is a comparatively silent bird. For 

 so large a creature the cry is certainly thin and 

 weak ; to me it sounds like the syllable way-ah or 

 wah repeated several times in fairly quick succession 

 a real yelping bark in fact. 



Another eyrie I know in co. Mayo is more 

 fortunate, in that it possesses a pair of Eagles. All 



