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COMMON BUZZARD. 
of leaving, I determined to try and obtain a shot from the higher ledge we had lately discovered. Taking with 
me only the head keeper, I followed the same track hy which we had returned from our last ascent. On nearing 
the edge of the clitF, Duncan secured a good grip of my coat while I cautiously stretched over so as to 
command a view of the ledge. The Buzzard was evidently covering the imitation eggs ; and it needed a whistle 
to induce it to fly. Being well prepared, as soon as it spread its wings I tired; and the bird, just clearing the 
ledge, fell to the foot of the cliffs. By the help of the glasses I was able to make out that the aspect of the 
nest, eggs, and covering of the trap was in no manner changed ; so we returned at once to the spot where we 
had been lunching. By the time we arrived the dead bird had been picked up, and proved to he, as I at first 
imagined, the male. We had not regained our position above ten minutes when the remaining Buzzard came 
in sight, and, after circling three or four times over the nest, it sailed away hack to the north. In less than a 
quarter of an hour it again appeared in view, and, following the exact course pursued hy the bird already 
killed, it settled at once on the nest. We had just come to the conclusion that this one also had managed to 
escape the trap, when our attention was attracted hy a third Buzzard which was flying immediately over the spot. 
After two or three turns, it alighted on a dead stump of mountain-ash, within a few feet of the sitting bird. 
I should have started at once to endeavour to obtain another shot ; hut the commanding position taken up by 
the latest arrival rendered it unlikely that we could get within range before warning of our approach would 
be given. For over an hour we waited, in hopes that the bird might take its departure ; hut it showed no signs 
of moving. As a last resource, I despatched a couple of men to walk a short distance up the glen, and return 
again close below the nest, directing them on no account to pause while in the immediate vicinity, hut to keep 
steadily on their way. This manoeuvre had the desired effect ; the bird left the tree without giving the alarm, 
and, after circling a few times over their heads, made a straight course towards the north, where it was 
speadily lost in the mist. As soon as it disappeared, we started again for the rock ; and on this occasion I had 
some difficulty to force the bird to move. I was unable to get a shot while she sat ; and for several moments 
she refused to stir. At length spreading her wings, I fired at once, and she fell dead into the trap. It was 
necessary to go down to the ledge with the ropes in order to recover the dead bird ; and on examining the 
imitation nest and eggs it was discovered that neither the male nor the female had made the slightest 
alteration in the arrangement of their domestic affairs. The difference in the nest was certainly slight; hut it 
was strange how the birds had been imposed upon hy the texture of the eggs.” 
