Wild Life in Wales 



Kestrel, who continued hovering above her crag. Whether 

 it was this indifference that annoyed the Falcon it was 

 impossible to say, but she came down like a bolt from the 

 blue, and it was only by a clever shift that the Kestrel saved 

 herself from annihilation, for the Falcon, with lowered talons, 

 and an angry scream, passed perilously near her, dashing in her 

 impetuosity to within twenty or thirty feet of our ambush. 

 The rush of her wings as she sheered up again was almost 

 as loud as the swish with which she came down, and just as 

 she had regained about her old vantage point the Kestrel 

 having, meanwhile, wisely taken refuge in the rocks an 

 eddy of wind carried a dry bracken leaf upwards, and down 

 came the Falcon upon it with almost as fine a stoop as 

 before. She may have taken the brown object moving 

 beneath her for a bird, but, if so, she seemed to discover 

 her mistake before quite reaching it, for she slackened pace 

 and turned sharp round to follow it instead of attempting to 

 strike, and fluttered about it for a second or two. But, 

 meantime, her consort, who had all the time been circling 

 overhead, had caught sight of a Wood-Pigeon passing in the 

 valley below, and set off in pursuit, and our Falcon joining 

 him, all were quickly out of sight behind the shoulder of 

 the hill. 



It was altogether a most interesting hour that we spent 

 beneath that " shelter stone," for, besides the Falcon's stoop, 

 always worth beholding, the behaviour of the Kestrel, in 

 recognising that her safest place was not for the moment in 

 the air, and the gleam of the falling Magpie's tail, were both 

 sights worth a long day's journey to witness. 



A solitary Buzzard used to roost in the wood below the 

 Graig that autumn, and one day gave me away in the most 

 ridiculous manner. I had frequently had discussions with 

 the keeper as to the harmlessness of the Buzzards upon his 

 beat, and had, as I fondly hoped, nearly succeeded in 

 persuading him to my view ; and although, of course, the 

 following incident did not prove that the bird had been 

 guilty of more than picking up a dead grouse, it was easily 

 sufficient to upset all my arguments, in the man's mind. 

 He was sitting one evening near the top of the rock over- 



