PEREGRINE FALCON. 295 



Equal in beauty of form, and little inferior in Btrength or 

 spirit, the Peregrine Falcon is next in size to the species last 

 described, and like it exhibits the peculiar characters of the 

 genus in great perfection. It I'anka next to the Gyr Falcon in 

 the estimation of those who train rapacious birds for the chase, 

 and, being the species usually employed in hunting the larger 

 kinds of game, has obtained pre-eminently the name of Hunt- 

 ing Hawk. Although nowhere very numerous, it is exten- 

 sively distributed in Britain, so that specimens are plentiful in 

 museums and private collections. 



Male. — In form the Peregrine Falcon is compact and ro- 

 bust, its body being ovate, anteriorly broad, with the breast 

 full and well-rounded, the neck short, the head large, round, 

 and rather flattened above. The bill is short, thick, and 

 strong ; the upper mandible with the cere rather short, the 

 dorsal line curved from the base, the ridge convex but rather 

 narrow, the sides convex, the edges with a slight festoon, and 

 a prominent angular process, the tip trigonal, descending, and 

 acute ; the lower mandible with the angle broad and rounded, 

 the dorsal line convex, as are the sides, the edges somewhat in- 

 volute, the tip directly truncate, with a distinct sinus behind. 



The interior of the mouth, the tongue, and the digestive or- 

 gans having been minutely described at p. 53 of Vol. I, and 

 figured in PL IV, it will here suffice to give the measurements 

 of these parts in the individual selected for description. The 

 cEsophagus is six inches in length, an inch in width at its com- 

 mencement, and presently dilating into a crop two inches in 

 width ; the stomach two inches and two-twelfths in length and 

 breadth, its round central tendons three-eighths in diameter ; 

 the intestine three feet long, varying in width from three- 

 eighths to two-eighths, but the rectum, which is three inches 

 long, is wider, and dilates into a globular cloaca, an inch and 

 a half in width ; the coeca only a twelfth and a half in 

 length. 



The nostrils are round, a twelfth and a half in diameter, 

 with a central papilla ; the eyes large, their aperture four and 

 a half twelfths ; the eyelids bare, but ciliated, the projecting 



