Where is the tent to be pitched ? 3 
sea. If, after this, readers complain that the Peregrines as figured 
disappoint them in not looking sufficiently fierce, I can only plead 
in extenuation that these photographs, being taken in the eyrie, are 
really nursery pictures, and that I can imagine even Lord Kitchener 
might lose his sternness under such circumstances. Although in 
my belief the Tiercel is fiercer and bolder than the Falcon, yet in 
the relaxation of the eyrie I have seen him, when wailing to the 
Falcon to bring him food for the young, assume a whimsically 
childlike and plaintive expression that might have evoked sympathy 
from a dove. Those who remain unsatisfied—and I hope there will 
be many—have only to spend.a little time and trouble in making 
a hiding-shed and finding an eyrie, and then they will see something 
far better—the birds themselves. 
Before coming to the results, a brief record of the three years’ 
operations may not be out of place. In r910 I worked from one 
of my late friend, Hugh Earl’s tents, a self-supporting gipsy tent 
in which the arching canes are fixed above into a pair of ridge 
boards, and below into a wooden frame, so that when erected and 
covered with its cover of Willesden canvas, it can be easily carried 
about, like a huge bandbox, and placed on any flat surface. On 
first examining the eyrie, the difficulty was where to place it ; there 
seemed only two sites, and both of them bad. One was just in front 
of the eyrie, where, among the almost perpendicular rocks about 
twenty feet below the top of the precipice, there was a flat, earthy 
space ten feet long by five wide. This was at once rejected as being 
much too close to the birds and because it was four feet lower than 
the eyrie. The alternative site was a flat rock amid the jumble 
that formed the edge of the precipice ; but although flat it was on 
an incline, and though giving an excellent view into the eyrie below, 
it was nearly thirty feet away. However, it was a case of Hobson’s 
choice, so the tent, having been painted to match its surroundings, 
was left there for a few days to accustom the birds, while a varied 
assortment of rocks, placed inside, prevented it from being blown 
away. Then I spent six most uncomfortable hours in it. Though 
it looked fairly right from the outside, once inside it was like lying 
on the side of a roof among a lot of loose rocks that threatened an 
avalanche with every movement. On being released I found that 
