BIRD LIFE AT INCHN AD AMPH. 21 



the inn, I procured the assistance of two or three people, one 

 of whom, a young man, son of the innkeeper, volunteered to 

 go over the face of the rock with a rope round his waist, we 

 holding it from above. As it was not only rainy but 

 extremely windy, I was not very willing for him to do so. 

 However, as he seemed quite confident in the steadiness of 

 his own head and footing, we prepared to perform our share 

 of the work. Having fastened the rope securely round his 

 body below his arms, we lowered him gradually over the 

 summit, immediately above the nest of the buzzard. He 

 was provided also with two or three joints of a fishing-rod, 

 and a kind of tin soup-ladle (bearing in this country the 

 quaint name of a " kail-divider "), which was fixed into the 

 small end of his rod. The use of this was to enable him to 

 spoon the eggs out of the nest, in case it was placed, as the 

 nests of these birds often are, so far under a shelf of a rock 

 as to be inaccessible without some such contrivance. Over 

 lie WL-nt then without the smallest hesitation or nervousness, 

 notwithstanding the slippery state of the whole rock and the 

 violence of the wind. We lowered yard by yard of the rope, 

 till he looked like a spider hanging at the end of its thread. 

 He then was quite lost to our view, having scrambled under 

 some projecting rocks to reach the nest. After a few anxious 

 moments, he gave the agreed upon signal for being drawn up, 

 and I must say that I was rejoiced when his head appeared 

 again safe above the edge of the cliff, holding in his teeth his 

 cap, in which he had deposited the eggs. We found that the 

 peregrine's nest would have been quite inaccessible even to 

 our experi need and bold climber but for his long spoon. 



All the time that we had been engaged at the buzzard's 

 nest tw r o pair of hawks were hovering about us, keeping 

 certainly at a respectful distance. It was interesting to 

 observe the different flights of the two kinds of hawk the 

 buzzards sailing to and fro with slow but powerful wing, and 

 wheeling in large circles ; while the peregrines dashed about, 

 turning with rapid and sudden swoops, sometimes below us, 

 and sometimes suddenly shooting high up into the mist, 

 when we could only tell their exact situation by their shrill 

 and angry cries. The buzzards uttered a kind of low com- 

 plaining cry, of quite a different expression and note, as they 

 floated to and fro below us. 



