16 TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. CH. I. 



do SO. However, as he seemed quite confident in the 

 steadiness of his own head and footing, we prepared 

 to perform our share of the work. Having fastened 

 the rope securely round his body below his arms, 

 we lowered him gradually over the summit, imme- 

 diately above the nest of the buzzard. He was pro- 

 vided also with two or three joints of a fishing-rod, 

 and a kind of tin soup-ladle (bearing in this country 

 the quaint name of a " kail-divider"), which was 

 fixed into the small end of his rod. The use of this 

 was to enable him to spoon the eggs out of the nest, 

 in case it was placed, as the nests of these birds often 

 are, so far under a shelf of rock as to be inaccessible 

 without some such contrivance. Over he went then 

 without the smallest hesitation or nervousness, not- 

 withstanding the slippery state of the whole rock 

 and the violence of the wind. We lowered yard 

 by yard of the rope, till he looked like a spider 

 hanging at the end of its thread. He then was 

 quite lost to our view, hanng scrambled under some 

 projecting rocks, to reach the nest. After a few 

 anxious moments, he gave the agreed upon signal 

 for being drawn up, and I must say that I was re- 

 joiced when his head appeared again safe above the 

 edge of the cliff, holding in his teeth his cap, in 

 which he had deposited the eggs. We found that the 

 peregrine's nest would have been quite inaccessible 



