46 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



over again. At length he tired of this, and, soaring in narrow circles 

 without any movement of his wings other than a constant small 

 adjustment of their planes, he rose to a position 500 or 600 feet above 

 the mountain and north of the cliff. Nosing over suddenly, he 

 flicked his wings rapidly 15 or 20 times and fell like a thunderbolt. 

 Wings half closed now, he shot down past the north end of the cliff, 

 described three successive vertical loop-the-loops across its face, 

 turning completely upside down at the top of each loop, and roared 

 out over our heads with the wind rushing through his wings like 

 ripping canvas. Against the background of the cliff his terrific 

 speed was much more apparent than it would have been in the open 

 sky. The sheer excitement of watching such a performance was 

 tremendous; we felt a strong impulse to stand and cheer. 



"As March advances, the male peregrine tries more and more to 

 entice the female to certain shelves he has picked out. Between 

 hunting trips and exercising flights above the valley he spends long 

 intervals on these shelves, scratching around in the debris, wichew-mg 

 in his most persuasive tones, standing at their front edges breast out 

 to the sun, wailing mournfully now and then, and even flying to the 

 female's roost tree to wichew at her in soft conversational tones. At 

 first she pays no attention, nor leaves her tree, but gradually her 

 passivity gives way to mild interest; she flies to the shelf where he is 

 working and lights there; they both walk back out of sight and for a 

 moment there is an outburst of argumentative wichew-mg and 

 creaking as she seems to disagree emphatically with all his plans. 

 Either bird may come off first, leaving the other to scratch and dig 

 around, but as a rule they do not both stay. At any time now the 

 female may be seen to return to her tree alone; the male wichews 

 excitedly at one or more shelves and then comes off the cliff, flies 

 directly to her with no other preliminaries, and copulation takes 

 place to the accompaniment of a low, conversational, chuckling 

 noise, which is entirely distinct from the usual notes. Coition is 

 more likely to occur near the middle of the day and is usually repeated 

 within an hour or so ; it is also repeated on succeeding days until at 

 least two eggs are in the nest. 



"The interest of the male in nesting shelves now begins to wane 

 in inverse proportion to the female's increasing, though somewhat 

 furtive, activity. While he is away hunting she may be seen going 

 all over the cliff, squeezing into the most inadequate cracks and 

 niches, scratching and scraping with bill and feet, turning round and 

 round to get the feel of tentative nest hollows. At length she chooses 

 the site, apparently with no reference to the male's previous selection, 

 and in the course of a few days makes a smooth well-rounded scrape 

 an inch or two deep. If disturbed at this time she is very likely to 

 pick a new site at once and hurriedly prepare it, and I have several 



