The Prairie Falcon 



which this Falcon had set herself. Yet a determined facing of the 

 problem of approach brought a sure solution. We set an iron peg down 

 some forty feet over the brim, then made fast and cast off the 6o-foot 

 rope with which we were provided, and found that it thus exceeded the 

 nest by fifteen feet. To 

 have gone down from 

 above would have meant 

 some risk, as well as an 

 accompaniment of blind- 

 ing dust, so "Kelly" 

 made a detour and at- 

 tacked from below. By 

 dint of carving steps 

 with a hammer he suc- 

 ceeded at last in clutch- 

 ing the dangling rope- 

 end, and so reached the 

 coveted shelf. The Fal- 

 con, meanwhile, made the 

 great amphitheater re- 

 sound with malediction, 

 and charged about in a 

 fashion to make the be- 

 holder dizzy as he 

 watched her passage 

 across the fluted back- 

 ground. Her anger 

 made our visit memor- 

 able, but it failed to 

 arouse her mate, who 

 was doubtless off hunt- 

 ing in the basin country. 



Though slow to take alarm, the Falcon once roused from the nest be- 

 comes very wary. It was doubly fortunate, therefore, that one of the 

 birds photographed for display on page 1619 could be approached under 

 cover, and suddenly confronted from a convenient spur just opposite. 

 To reach this nest our intrepid guide, Dean Brown, went down hand over 

 hand the full length of a 140-foot rope. A bird who knows she is under 

 surveillance will never resume a position on the eggs; but she will inter- 

 sperse her nervous and often distant excursions by prolonged rests on 

 some favorite perch or commanding knob. And this she is the more 

 ready to do if the observer himself remains quiet. A resumption of 



161J 



Taken in Kern County Photo by the Author 



A PALATIAL RESIDENCE 



A PRAIRIE FALCON MAY BE SEEN STANDING ON AN OLD RAVEN NEST 



