250 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



another honoured foe : he, too, bows to his 

 assailant's superior prowess and agility. Some- 

 times ' thieves fall out." I once witnessed a 

 fight in grim earnest between the Falcon of an 

 eyrie I was visiting and a stranger tiercel. The 

 former, looking like an animated anchor of live 

 steel, leapt from her eyrie and sweeping high above 

 the latter, himself at a goodly altitude, bore down 

 on him right viciously. To receive and, as he 

 hoped, to baffle this determined onslaught, he 

 turned over on his back. All the same the Falcon 

 grappled with him, and locked in this deadly 

 embrace the two brigands fell like a stone through 

 space for fully a hundred feet or more. Then with 

 a mighty effort the tiercel disengaged and made 

 off hot foot, now pursued by the virago's mate, 

 who had just got into the picture. The chase con- 

 tinued for some distance inland, though the 

 victorious Falcon, feeling satisfied with what she 

 had already done, left the fray chiefly to her 

 husband. They never caught him, and both 

 shortly returned to see what had happened in 

 their absence. 



As a rule, no warier bird exists than the 

 1 hunting hawk," but on one occasion a red- 

 letter day knowing a recognised ' ' stand ' ' only 

 four feet down a cliff, I leant over cautiously and 

 for ten engrossing minutes watched a female 

 Peregrine at these very close quarters before she 

 looked up ; while at another time, only the ledge 



