24 How to spend a happy birthday. 
rocks above by ropes. Inside it one can comfortably lie down or 
kneel, but one cannot, of course, stand up. There is a comfortable 
mattress, pillows and a good Jaeger sleeping bag. There are hooks - 
on the walls, on one of which I see I am expected to hang my watch, » 
and all sorts of notices pinned up, one of which is a complete list of 
meals the young Peregrines have had since May 2oth. There is 
also a diagram of the eyrie by J. A., with the rocks lettered for 
convenience in identifying positions taken up by the adult birds. 
To get into “ Peregrine Hotel”’ it was necessary to crawl through 
the small door with my slippers on ; I left my boots outside on the 
cliff under the hotel. It is quite understood by those who use the 
shed that once inside one must not use the door of retreat until 
relieved, or the Falcons would know that someone had been left 
inside, and he would thereby incur the wrath of Dr. Heatherley, 
our leader, who would probably expel the sinner from the band. 
It is certainly a novel dormitory, and as the Falcons do not put in 
an appearance it gives me time to reflect on possibilities. How if 
the wind gets up? as it seems to be doing. What is the choice 
between being blown out to sea like an aeroplane or to be rolled down 
the cliff to the same destination ? Then I remember it is my birth- 
day! What a jovial, sociable way of spending it! Then I think 
what a capital idea it is to teach people like myself, who go to bed 
too late and get up late, the value of early hours. 
I am writing on because there is nothing else to do but to smoke 
and watch the four white, downy and sleepy young Falcons nestled 
together nearly in the centre of the eyrie. I am afraid all the fun 
has been on before I came on duty. It is now 7 p.m., and I have 
not yet seen the old birds. When we landed the pair were flying 
overhead, crying ‘‘ Kek, kek, kek,” and continued so while we 
were changing guard, and for ten minutes after my friends had left 
me, which I took to mean until the boat left. I did not hear them 
at all again until 6.35 p.m., and after that only occasionally, and 
then only one bird. Edmondson said on my arrival that the young 
birds were so full that if anyone touched them they would burst. 
Well, they settled down very comfortably altogether, with their 
heads towards the centre of a compact circle. From this they have 
never moved, excepting at first when pestered by the bluebottles 
