CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. »3 



In connection with this particular species, the 

 keeper gave me a couple of very interesting facts, 

 which he vouched for as being quite true. One 

 was, that if these Peregrines had been permitted to 

 hatch out their eggs and bring up their young, that 

 they would have entirely destroyed his grouse moor 

 for letting purposes, killing more birds than a couple 

 of guns would be able to manage. The other was 

 the mode adopted for killing its prey, which appears 

 to be unlike that of other Hawks. He said when 

 the Peregrine gets above its prey, and the time 

 arrives for making the stoop, it descends with 

 tremendous rapidity, and by sheer weight and force 

 with the shoulder of its wing decapitates the bird, 

 and that the head of the victim falls on one side. 

 With regard to this last matter, however, Mr. 

 Henry Scherren, F.Z.S. — a well-known authority — 

 says that the more usual method is for the prey 

 to be gripped in the talons, and that decapitation is 

 the result of accident not of design. 



CASE 16. 



THE SPARROW HAWK. 



Order, Accipitres. Family, Falconidcs. 



This is a very bold and destructive species ; 

 deadly on young game and poultry chicks, and the 

 enemy of all game-keepers. 



