FALCO PEREGRINUS. 99 



of tlie earth was sent to Lapland, they had a station at Aawasaksa (Avasaxa), 

 a remarkable hill on the left bank of the Tornea, just opposite Matarengi, 

 which, though situated •wathout the Arctic Cii'cle, is of sufficient height to 

 admit of the sim's being seen from its simimit at midnight in summer. 

 Here, it is mentioned in the narrative of their expedition (' CEuvres de Mr. de 

 Maupertuis, «S:c.,' Lyon, 1756, tome iii. pp. 110, 111), they observed a Falcon's 

 nest. In 1799, Captain Skjoldebrand, then travelling with Signor Acerbi, re- 

 cords his having rediscovered this nest, aroimd which " the birds, frightened 

 by the fall of some pieces of rock which we threw from the top of the moun- 

 tain, flew, and filled the air with their cries " ^ In 1853, Mr. Wolley's first 

 year in Lapland, he ascended this hill, and the Falcons once more showed 

 themselves to him. He stated in a letter to me soon after, that they " had the 

 cut of Peregrines," as two j'ears later he proved that they were by finding, in 

 company with Mr. Simpson, their nest containiBg a dead young one, the skull 

 of which is now before me (Osteoth. Newt. MS. Cat. No. 15, f ).] 



§ 220. One.—ldQ of Wight. From Mr. J. F. Dawson's Col- 

 lection, 1845. 



Given to me by the Rev. J. F. Dawson, of Ventnor. It was taken 

 in the chffs of that island, where the bird breeds regularly ; see Mr. 

 Bury's notes in the 'Zoologist' [1844, pp. 517-520]. Mr. Dawson 

 brought me this egg to Monk's Wood, where we were collecting in- 

 sects early in June, especially the caterpillars of the Purple Emperor, 

 and from the Mere the caterpillars of the Large Copper. 



§ 221. One. — Orkneys. From Mr. George Harvey, of Strom- 



ness, 1848. 



From a crag near Stromness. Mr. Harvey has had many of their 

 eggs some years. He assured me that he once shot, but could not 

 get, an Iceland Falcon, one of a pair that, as he believed, had a 

 nest in Orkney. I did not understand that he saw the nest. This 

 crag is the rock from which the Falcon flew to attack an Eagle, and 

 broke its wing in so doing ; but it stunned the Eagle, and they fell 

 together. Some boatmen, in gratitude for delivering the enemy into 

 their hands, gave the poor bird its liberty to mend its wing as it best 

 could. 



§ 222. i^o?^f.— Sutherlandshire, 28 April, 1849. " J. W." 



On the 21st of April 1849, a man at the Dunnet Head Light- 



' ri have not seen Skjoldebrand's work, and quote the above passage from an 

 extract given among the " Literary Selections " in the ' New Annual Register ' for 

 1814 (vol. XXXV. pp. 103, 104). Acerbi mentions the Falcons, but says nothing 

 about the nest (' Travels, &c.,' London, 1802, vol. i. p. 366).— Ed.] 



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