The Poor Buzzard 249 



by a Buzzard for her eyrie ; sometimes, perhaps, because 

 the latter sites are often already occupied by Ravens or 

 Peregrines, neither of which are much given to tolerating 

 the presence of a rival near their domains. There was one 

 cliff-girt pass, however, which I often visited, that contained 

 a nest of each of these three species ; and as an instance of 

 the unequal way in which justice is sometimes meted out, by 

 the powers which rule in such places, I may add that it was 

 upon the poor Buzzard only that the keeper's vengeance 

 fell. The reason of this was not so much that he loved the 

 others more, but that they were less demonstrative, and at 

 the same time more wary than the Buzzard. It was a long 

 range of rocks, whose higher escarpments looked out, at the 

 upper end of the gorge, upon the open moor ; while at the 

 other extremity they dipped in terraces, half buried under 

 fallen debris, until lost in a drapery of blackthorn, hazel, 

 and oak, that, increasing in stature as the ground descended, 

 eventually closed the lower end of the valley in dense wood. 

 The Peregrine had made her home upon one of the higher 

 cliffs, where her inaccessibility generally secured safety. The 

 Ravens' nest was perhaps a quarter of a mile lower down, 

 on a rock, overhung, and invisible from above, but easily 

 approachable within gunshot, by any tolerable climber from 

 below. The Buzzard occupied a heathery ledge just on the 

 confines of the wood, with some scrubby trees growing on 

 the ledge itself, affording at the same time convenient 

 perching places for the birds, and a secure bracket for the 

 nest. It could be approached, with ease, within ten yards 

 either from above or below, and was not very difficult of 

 access after that. 



The Peregrine cried a harsh defiance from her citadel, 

 throughout the summer, and raided pigeons, and grouse, as 

 she listed ; but it was too far a cry to fetch the keeper from 

 his pheasant field. The Ravens took off their brood by 

 stealth, ere serious hatching work had well begun ; but the 

 unsuspicious Buzzards soared, mewing, overhead, regardless 

 of the indefensibility of their position, just at the time the 

 young pheasants were appearing, until they were both shot, 

 and nailed up on the " tree " at the corner of the hatching 



