48 Bird - Lore
tried to reach from above, The Hawks had already desisted from their attack and taken up their old position on the other cliff; but when I emerged from a thicket. on the side of a chasm. and crawled hopefully out along the sloping ledge to the last bit of safe ground in the direction of the white stain. the female.#blue»backed and ruddy-breasted and superbly marked. with tremendous yellow feet. flight of transcendent force and swiftness, and ear-splitting. savage. raucous. incessant cries.—dashed across and assailed me more violently than ever. She onCe came so near that I felt the wind of her great wings on my face, But this sortie was as brief as it was bold, and the bird soon rejoined her impassive mate on the distant cliff. leaving me to grapple with the problem of reaching the suspected ledge below me. Clutching a dead hemlock sapling which stood on the ultimate verge, I leaned far out over emptiness (two hundred feet. more or less. above the footrhill field). There. seven feet below me, and off to one side, was the drihbled bottom of the guano-heap. The nest. if nest there was, could not be seen because of a projecting rock. Having no rope. I stripped off my shirt and undershirt. twisted them together, tied one end to the base of the hemlock. and. holding on for dear life. leaned out still further. But lean and peer as I might. the back part of the cranny remained hidden, and nothing could be seen of the nest. Sorely tantalized, I retreated. made a long. laborious circuit through vilely dense brush and brambles. which con» cealed numberless jagged rocks and treacherous holes. and climbed to the highest accessible point below the guano-mark. But the nest was no more visible from below than from above.—projecting rocks still cut off the back of the cranny‘ from my view. So. though the female's furious attack had firmly convinced me thatI had found the nest. I gave up trying to reach it. for the time. planning to return with a rope and a companion. Before leaving the hill. however. I went over to investigate the other high cliff. where the Hawks spent most of their time. They were sitting there as I approached the verge from above. and suddenly took wing. together. and shot past me. with a great roar of vibrating quill-feathers. at such astound— ing speed that I did not manage fairly to focus my eyes upon them. They appeared as two bow-bent. lightning-rapid streaks. and disappeared over the hills further rim almost before my brain had interpreted the imperfect message from my frustrated eyes. Again. a few minutes later. I saw beau» tiful speed-feats performed by the male. as he and his mate were gyrating high over the cliffs. They were floating about in the bright. keen air, with the easy indolence that marks superlative power at rest; when. of a sudden. the male made a sharper wing-movement. and was two hundred yards away from his mate in the merest twinkling of an eye. Veering, he then returned to her with even more dizzying swiftness: and this perfor- mance was repeated several times. His wings always ‘ sang ’ on the back- ward course. but never when he was going away. This. and the greater
