10 TOA #A U-De0 BiO UN, eB) Usa Eee 
my belief that prairie falcons did inhabit Castle Rock, although as yet 
there was no sign of them. On the other side of the hill an enterprising 
and adventurous climber had at some time built a rather rickety wooden 
stairway leading to the top. Mounting the trembling structure to the 
plateau, I began to search the edge of the cliffs for the falcon’s eyrie. At 
one point I leaned far over the edge in an attempt to examine the contents 
of a crevice about twenty feet below. While in this precarious position I 
suddenly felt a rush of wind through my hair, accompanied by a sound 
as though a rock had whistled past my ear. Above me, shooting up to the 
heavens, was a large sandy-colored bird—a prairie falcon! 
My pleasure was far greater than his in my breath-taking introduction 
to, this royal denizen of the upper strata. High overhead the falcon coursed 
nervously back and forth, sometimes gliding in so close that I could see the 
dark moustache marks on the sides of his throat and the rich brown barring 
of wings and tail, and sometimes swooping out over the town and plains 
beyond. Assuredly a male, the bird showed great concern at my presence 
on the cliff, and after a few minutes of circling and diving he dropped 
low and slipped into the darkness of the crevice which I had been watching 
when he put in an appearance. Making ail possible haste, I descended the 
stairs and ran down the path that led beneath the ledge which the falcon 
had entered. I frightened the bird from the cavity as I approached and 
he flashed upward like an arrow loosed from a bow. His exit brought the 
female to the opening. She was much larger than her mate, which is 
always the case with raptores. While we stared at each other, not more 
than twenty-five feet apart, I could see the large yellow feet, armed with 
deadly talons by which the falcon lives. In the keen, dark eyes and exquisite 
perfection of her body I saw why these birds have been endeared to the 
hearts of falconers down through the ages, for in every line of her body 
and in her every action was daring, speed, courage, and intelligence, the 
very qualities that men strive to achieve or imitate, but never so well. 
The spell was broken when I made a slight movement and the hawk 
launched out over the hillside, uttering a weak, plaintive note. She flew, 
on wing’s evidently stiff from non-use due to long hours of incubation, to a 
rock which jutted out from the cliff several hundred feet away. The male, 
meanwhile, was savagely diving at me, and one could hear the whistle of 
wind through his primaries while he was still a long way off as he raced 
in to the attack. 
An interesting incident occurred at a later visit to the eyrie. The eggs 
had hatched, as evidenced by the cries which issued from the nest ledge, 
and the male falcon was on hand to challenge me. His reckless plunges 
were even more daring than at the previous visit, if that were possible. 
My companion on this visit was a small dog of mixed ancestry that joined 
forces with me as I started up the hill. We had just climbed the stairway 
to the plateau and the dog had run on ahead over the rocks. As he drew 
away from me a feathered projectile sped in at him, narrowly missing his 
head as it rocketed upward. Here was an object on which the hawk could 
vent his rage. Every time the dog would stray a few feet from me the 
falcon would come in at a strafing level, causing the animal to flatten itself 
