DECEIVING WILD CREATURES. 35 



As nothing made either sound or movement 

 she became gradually reassured, and her distrust 

 of the awe-inspiring eye staring straight at her 

 nest diminished, until she ventured back again 

 and stood over her reddy-brown eggs listening 

 intently. 



I waited until she sat down, and the fierce, 

 dour look on her countenance had somewhat 

 subsided, and then fired off my fast shutter 

 upon her. The noise made by the apparatus 

 sent her away in a great hurry, but she alighted 

 over my head again much sooner than I expected, 

 and quickly going to ground, flapped her way 

 awkwardly over the heather to her nest again. 

 In two hours she became so used to the noise 

 made by my focal plane shutter, that she abso- 

 lutely refused to stir when I made an exposure. 



When all my plates were exhausted there arose 

 the problem of how escape from concealment was to 

 be effected without unduly frightening the merlin. 

 I mewed like a cat, rapped on the ground focussing 

 glass of the camera with my knuckles, and rattled 

 the legs of the tripod, but all to no purpose ; she 

 saw nothing, and paid no heed to sounds. I 

 therefore thrust my right arm out under the 

 canvas at the back of the tent, and hurled my 

 water flask over it. Directly the missile had 

 left my hand, I quaked lest it should, by an 

 unfortunate fatality, fall on the back of the 



