134 PEREGRINES IN LOVE 



leading hawk will miss; its mate follows 

 instantly. Sometimes a third striking is 

 attempted. Usually, however, it is not 

 needed, although the course of the dive, 

 once begun, cannot be altered either the 

 object is missed entirely or secured. In 

 the pools below the cliffs the sea boils, 

 tossing the spray afar. Shags haunt par- 

 ticular rocks, content in the sunlight. The 

 falcons do not molest them, but they may 

 watch the loving couple high in heaven, 

 and so may the gulls that with yelping 

 plaints rise and fall and glide upon the air. 

 Swiftly and with quick wing-beats the 

 peregrines climb, almost vertically, it would 

 appear. Then a sudden speeding at eighty 

 or ninety miles an hour, a downward dash 

 at the rocks, beaks and wings touching; 

 they hiss past the gulls, swoop apart and 

 glide upwards, uttering their sweetly wild 

 mating cries. Nothing matters in the 

 ecstasies of spring. They may pass uncaring 

 within a few yards of a beholder, when he 



