34 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



Early the following morning I erected my 

 little hiding tent which consists of eight iron 

 legs a quarter of an inch in diameter, six feet 

 in length, eyeleted at the top to a small ring, 

 and covered with a skirt-shaped light canvas 

 within a dozen feet of the nest, and thatched it 

 with heather, as shown in the picture on p. 32. 

 Upon completing this deceitful structure I went 

 away and concealed myself in a forest of tall 

 bracken growing on a view commanding the hill- 

 side about a quarter of a mile distant. In a very 

 few minutes I had the great satisfaction of seeing 

 the mountain falcon, or blue hawk, as the bird is 

 called in some districts, alight on the top of my 

 handiwork, and after surveying things a little while 

 from its elevation, go straight down on to her eggs. 



During the afternoon I fell in with a friendly 

 shepherd, who kindly tucked me up inside my 

 hide-all, and went his way. In about ten minutes 

 from the time of the man's departure I was de- 

 lighted to hear the wing-folding flick of the merlin 

 just over my head, and waited with bated breath 

 and throbbing pulses. She speedily flew down 

 to her nest, but catching sight of the lens, instantly 

 left it, and astonished me by commencing to flop 

 about with extended pinions over the heather in a 

 way strongly suggestive of the tactics a teal had 

 just employed in trying to decoy me away from 

 the presence of her family of tiny ducklings. 



