Falcons and Grouse 395 



moor, and far away in the distance I happened to catch sight 

 of two moving objects against the sky. Almost before I 

 had had time to realise that these were the falcons, they 

 were close at hand, the rapidity of their flight being such 

 that they might have been supposed to be racing with one 

 another. There was a great rush of wings as they came on, 

 and it was perfectly astonishing how in only the last few 

 yards the pace was checked by an upward glide, enabling 

 the birds to come to a perch within not many yards of my 

 head. They made the rock almost simultaneously, and 

 alighted a few yards apart, the female giving herself a 

 vigorous shake and at once setting about the preening of 

 her feathers. Then the male began to call softly, and 

 leaving his perch, approached still nearer to the nest ; but 

 my slightest movement now alarmed him, and with a 

 warning cry he dropped over the rock and was quickly 

 followed by his companion. In approaching their eyrie, the 

 birds would not appear to take the slightest precaution to 

 guard against an ambush, all being staked upon their powers 

 of direct vision ; and marvellously keen though those powers 

 be, it is yet more astonishing how they can be brought into 

 full play while the birds are moving through the air at such 

 a high rate of speed. 



The Ddwallt is an ancient nesting station of the Pere- 

 grine ; and although one or other of the birds are often 

 killed, others always turn up to take their places, if not at 

 once, then certainly before the following season. Of a pair 

 which occupied the site in 1906, the female was an in- 

 veterate slayer of Grouse, and sorely taxed the patience of 

 the keeper on the beat. When walking over the adjoining 

 moor with him one day, about the middle of April, we 

 picked up no fewer than three old cocks, all of which had 

 evidently fallen to the falcon's skill. One of them had 

 been partly devoured, but the others were untouched, save 

 for the rip on the back caused by the falcon's claw. In one 

 of them the claw had caught the neck, and almost severed 

 the head from the body. Traps were set at two of the 

 remains ; but only resulted in the death of that scavenger of 

 the moors, a poor Buzzard, and a Hedgehog. One Grouse 



