U2 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



He had not been there long before a peregrine 

 falcon swept by, and made a dash at the lure, but 

 discovering his mistake, almost at the very mo- 

 ment when he seemed to strike it, rose with the 

 quickness of thought, and flew into a tree about 

 thirty yards from the spot where the farmer lay 

 concealed. The latter, who still imagined it to 

 be a wood- pigeon — never before having seen a 

 peregrine — fired, and killed the falcon, thus un- 

 consciously destroying his best friend, and de- 

 priving himself of a most powerful ally in thin- 

 nino^ the ranks of his feathered enemies. 



A falcon was caus^ht in a sinoular situation 

 at the farm of Saddlescombe, situated between 

 Shoreham and the Devil's Dyke. While en- 

 gaged in taking sparrows under the thatched 

 eaves of a barn, the farmer was surprised at the 

 sudden plunge of a heavier body into the net, 

 whose violent struggles among the meshes, and 

 tlie liberal use of its sharp claws, at first induced 

 him to believe that he had captured a cat. It 

 turned out, however, to be a peregrine — a bird 

 of the year. 



Although, from a general similarity both in 

 aspect and structure, the hobby {Falco suhhuteo) 

 has been correctly styled a miniature peregrine, 

 3^et, unlike that species, it prefers the wooded 

 district of the weald to the Downs or the open 



