MALE AND H E S T L I N GS
P E R E G R I N E FALCON.
FALCO PEREGRINOS.
NOTWITHSTANDING the number of young that are taken fur Ilnwkin"-purposes, the quantities slaughtered
hy keepers, and Hie constant attacks both on eggs and birds by collectors, the Peregrine may still be. found
by no means sparsely scattered over the country, from north to south.
I n the Highlands of Scotland this species has numberless breed in g-stat ions on the inland mountains and
along the rocky portions of tko sea-coast, as well as on the adjacent islands. To the south of Perthshire,
though I have watched the birds as roving visitors in most counties where I remained for any length of time,
I met with no nesting-quarters, with the exception of those in the dills overhanging the sea. I have heard
ns an old tradition, in more than one part of the country, that these falcons nested formerly in the towers of
churches; hut I can give no more trustworthy authority. I noticed one circling round tin- dome of St. Paul's
a few years back ; hut here, 1 believe, it. is well known that a pair at times take up their residence for some
months, being attracted by the I'igeous frequenting the cdiQ.cc. In certain localities it seems as if no amount
of persecution would drive them from their favourite haunts. If one of the parents be destroyed, another
shortly after joins the survivor; should the young he removed, the following season eggs are sure to ho laid
cither on the self-same spot or else at nu great distance. Ever since 1 have known the Baaa Book, now over
twenty years, 1 believe it has been regularly resorted to as an eyrie, though I cannot speak with errtainty as to
the last few seasons. Possibly the young may have tlown on one or two occasions; but every year that I have
been in the district I learned thai the nest hail been roblied. I frequently observed the old birds on the
adjacent islands of Craig Leith, the Lamb, and Eidra, and heard from the North-Berwick lishermen that eggs
had been taken from them; hut I never caught a glimpse of any part thai seemed lo have been need ua an
eyrie. The May, at the northern entrance to the firth, is likewise a well-known station; I have repeatedly
seen the birds dying above the gloomy caves on the south side of the island. The chalk el ill's between
Itottiugdcaa and lienchy Head during autumn and winter harbour a large number of Peregrines; aad a pair
or two DOW ami then breed in the eastern portion of the range. They arc, however, so well looked after that
but few young birds are left long enough to take their departure. I have observed a stray bird or two round
the Isle of Wight; and on two or three occasions on the Cornish coast a pair appeared to freq it the rocks
between Trcwavas and Portldeven ; and, again, it was seldom that t visited the neighbourhood of llie Land s
End without noticing one or two within a short distance of the dills.
During the last week of Octotx-r 18SO I witnessed a rather curious performance between a pair of
Peregrines in this districl. I was on the brow of the bill above the duck-pool near the Tol-Pedii-l'cuwith (the
funnel hole), when I caught sight, as I at first imagined, of a Peregrine in pursuit of some smaller Hawk coining
from the direction of the Land's End. The larger bird was continually rising above the smaller, and then
dashing down as if attempting to strike it ; the hitter, sharply altering its course hy a downward and sidelong
movement, avoided every swoop; and their flight, the whole time they remained in sight, was simply a repetition