COMMON BUZZARD,
of leaving, I determined to try and obtain a shut from the higher leilge we had lately discovered. Taking with
me only 1 lie head keeper, I followed the same track by which wc had returned from our last ascent. On noaring
the edge of the cliff, Duncan secured a good grip of my coal while I cautiously stretched over so as to
command a view of the leilge. The Ihuzard was evidently covering the iinilatiou eggs; and it needed a whistle
to induce it to My. I Icing well prepared, as soon as it spread its wings I fired; 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 t h e spot where we
bad been lunching, tly the time wc arrived the dead bird bad 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 ltuzzard came
in sight, and, after enroling 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 exuet course pursued by Ihe 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 by a third Huzzard which was living immediately over the spof.
After two or three turns, it alighted on a dead stump of mountain-ash, within a few feet of the sitting bird.
T should have started af once to endeavour to obtaiu another shot; but the commanding position taken up hy
the latest arrival rendered it unlikely that we could get within range before warning of our approach would
be given. Tor over an hour we waited, in hopes that the bird might lake its departure ; but 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
ngnin close below the nest, directing them on no account to pause while in the immediate vicinity, hut to keep
steadily on their way. This maniruvre 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 s a t ; 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; Mid on examining the
imitation nest and eggs it was discovered that neither the mule nor the female had made the slightest
alteration in the arrangement of their domestic affairs. The difference in the nest was certainly slight; but it
was strange bow the birds bad been imposed upon by the texture of the eggs."