NOTES AND QUERIES. 155 



the majority of birds, but Ravens had nearly fledged young in their 

 nests. We knew of five eyries both years, and probably over a dozen 

 young birds were reared safely from them. Two nests appeared to 

 have been harried — one by shot, the other by stones. In 1906 the 

 former of these contained an egg and a very small young bird on 

 April 21st, which was almost certainly the result of the second attempt 

 that year to breed on the part of one pair of birds. A couple of days 

 after the nest was empty. It was remarkable what difference there 

 was in the attitude of the individual pairs towards intruders. The 

 owners of the nest nearest the village at which we were staying, 

 accustomed more or less perhaps to human beings, were very noisy 

 and bold at the nest. A pair two miles away, whose young were about 

 the same age, kept so quiet that it was often difficult to see them at 

 all. They would keep perhaps half a mile distant, perfectly motionless 

 and silent on the sky-line. The favourite way of spending the morning 

 seemed to this family to be basking on a ledge just outside the nest in 

 the hot sun. After the young Eavens had left the village nest — as I 

 may call it — I witnessed a most interesting skirmish between a Pere- 

 grine and one of the old Ravens, the cause of which was that two of the 

 young ones had got near the Falcon's eyrie (or where I suppose it was, 

 for we found one near the same spot in 1905, and this year the birds 

 were rather anxious if anyone approached). However, both com- 

 batants appeared to have doubts as to the advisability of closing. I 

 afterwards saw one of these Ravens steal an egg from a Cormorant's 

 nest — not, I think, spearing it, but carrying it in its beak. The other 

 birds of prey were Sparrow-Hawks and Kestrels, the latter of which 

 were common. A friend of mine succeeded in photographing a hen of 

 the first-named species on its nest without much difficulty. This nest, 

 which could be seen from a distance, contained five most beautifully 

 marked eggs. A keeper of a large estate a few miles off told me that 

 Merlins (!) bred annually in a belt of firs on his ground. He also said 

 that he had several times seen a Peregrine kill a full-grown cock 

 Pheasant ; that the Falcon found the bird on the ground, and, after 

 putting it up by repeated stoops, promptly knocked it over. 



In the case of several species of birds, there was a curious fluctua- 

 tion in numbers to be noticed. In 1905, on a projecting rocky head, 

 there were several hundreds, I should think, of Puffins to be seen, and 

 no other cliff-birds. In 1906 the opposite was the case. Not a glimpse 

 of a Puffin was to be got, their places being taken by large numbers 

 of Guillemots, which sat in lines on the cliff-face, or disported them- 

 selves in the water below. Again, in 1905 we saw no trace of Shags, 



