28 WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



actions, the most important is to clear away all 

 the loose stones and rubble between the crowbar 

 and solid rock-edge of such a precipice as that 

 which the picture on p. 29 represents my brother 

 in the act of going down. If this very impera- 

 tive piece of work be neglected, the lowering 

 rope is sure to pull them out when he is being 

 drawn up again ; and woe betide the hardest head 

 or best-built camera struck by even a moderate- 

 sized stone with a velocity upon it gained by a 

 perpendicular drop of fifty or sixty feet. 



Whilst in the Shetlands last spring we had a 

 narrow escape from an accident of this kind. We 

 induced a young fellow to take us to a place where 

 he knew of a white-tailed or sea-eagle's eyrie on a 

 ledge in the face of a cliff some two hundred and 

 fifty feet in height. When we reached the place 

 our hearts bounded again with excitement, for the 

 great bird flung herself lazily off the ledge into 

 space within gunshot of us, and majestically flapped 

 her way seawards with the bright morning sunlight 

 glinting on her back and a small unheeded crowd 

 of noisy gulls mobbing her. 



The prospect of adding a photograph of her 

 eyrie and eggs or young to our collection so excited 

 my brother that in descending he did not exercise 

 the necessary care in clearing away every stone in 

 his path, with the result that in returning he had 

 the horror of seeing the rope drag a good-sized 

 one from its bed beneath a tuft of grass. Luckily 



