248 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



From below it is a glorious sight to watch a 

 Peregrine leave her eyrie. She launches or 

 flings herself out with an upward trend of the 

 body, then giving a few lightning-like wing beats 

 before getting into her swing ; but w r hen roused 

 from above she often literally flutters off with a 

 downward inclination, looking momentarily, for a 

 bird of such imposing appearance and noted con- 

 trol of movement, quite awkward and deranged. 

 The return to the eyrie and on the south coast 

 at any rate, no doubt because the birds are used 

 to the sight of human beings, so long as the 

 observer is on the beach the Peregrine shows little 

 reluctance about revisiting it is often accomplished 

 in splendid fashion. Instead of flying straight up to 

 it, as is sometimes the case, the noble creature first 

 mounts high in the heavens and describes a few 

 circles, in the middle of each of which she passes 

 down and close past the eyrie, often almost brushing 

 the cliff with her wing. Then aloft once again, 

 before diving with tightly-shut pinions, as if on an 

 inclined plane, into her retreat. Only, just before 

 the haven is reached are the powerful wings 

 unfurled and quickly flapped, only then are out- 

 stretched the muscular yellow legs, and she alights 

 on the edge of the eyrie with her compact form, so 

 it seems, thrown right back, though no impression 

 of lost balance is conveyed by the action. Then 

 often indeed will she stand for an appreciable 

 interval over her eggs before resettling on them. 



