IN GUSINA CAMP 73 
which there was quite a panorama. Below us the river 
made almost a circle, ringing round a peninsula of sand 
and grasses, where was a Russian cross, marking, as it 
seemed, a burial-place. 
A peregrine falcon rose as we approached, and we 
found the nest half-way down the cliff, just under where 
I have put the star in the sketch. 
The nest, on a little projection in the grass cliff, was a 
simple depression in the ground, scantily lined (though 
it was scarcely a lining) with dead grass and a few bits of 
down, no doubt from the sitting bird. 
It contained four eggs. 
The cliff at this point was not in the least degree pre- 
cipitous : it sloped, rather than fell, to the water's edge. 
But there was an entire absence of castings and of 
remains of food about the nest. There was not a bone 
or a feather to show the predatory nature of the occupant. 
I afterwards found a few pellets about the Russian cross 
—an obvious resting-place—but by the nest nothing. 
My readers will know that all the birds of prey, and 
many others besides these, throw up or eject the indiges- 
tible part of their food—the bones, fur or feathers—in 
the shape of castings or pellets. You can see the bird 
‘choke’ much as a ruminating cow does, and then the 
pellet appears. Any one who has kept these birds in 
captivity—any falconer, for instance, knows quite well 
that it is no good offering the bird a new meal until this 
part of the last one has been got rid of. It is very 
