PLATE I 

 PEREGRINE FALCON. Falco peregrinus 



May 2I5/, 1896. This Plate was taken from a nest on Hall's Craig, Lochbuie, 

 Isle of Mull. The nest was in a very nasty place to get at, and the keeper 

 assured me that it could not be reached, as he had tried it himself and could 

 not manage it. I was determined to try it, however, as he said he was quite 

 certain it contained eggs. Accordingly we walked round to the base of the 

 cliff and examined our ground from below. To the left of the nest a sort of 

 shallow gully filled with scrub ran up the almost perpendicular face of the 

 cliff, ending in a little grassy ledge which dwindled to nothing at the edge of 

 the ridge of rock, which divided our gully from the one in which was the cave 

 containing the nest. We could see quite well that it was a very ticklish corner 

 to get round, and it was this corner that had foiled the keeper. 



We started off and climbed up the gully. It was desperately hard work, 

 as in many places it was quite perpendicular, with only the scrub to hold on 

 by, and there were a great many loose blocks of rock. However, we got up 

 at last to the ledge, rather hot, but with the camera all safe. After a moment's 

 rest I examined the end of the ledge and the ridge. It certainly was a very 

 nasty corner if one looked down, but that was not at all necessary. I got 

 one leg round cautiously, and after a wide reach and a short struggle I was 

 on the ledge beside the nest, or rather just above it. I then reached round 

 and took my camera from the keeper, who held it as far round as he could 

 from his side of the ridge. After that all was plain sailing, except that I 

 could not get farther away from the nest than four feet, and that only by 

 standing on a very narrow ledge of rock, with one knee on the upper shelf, 

 and my back to two hundred feet of a cliff. I had just taken two plates, 

 when the keeper successfully negotiated the corner and stood on the ledge. 

 He said he could not have believed it was possible to get round that corner 

 as we had done. 



E 17 



