THE PEREGRINE FALCON 



FALCO FEREGRINUS 



Seabhag, Seabhao bhoirionn seilge, Seabhag - GHORM [Gaelic) ; 

 Faucon pfeLERiN (French); Wander Falke {German); Sapsan 

 (Russian). Local name, Blue Hawk. 



Except towards the western seaboard of Scotland, the 

 Peregrine Falcon is everywhere holding its own with 

 difficulty, for wherever there is grouse-preserving, there 

 the Falcon is an outcast and without peace. Every 

 keeper's hand is against it, and fortunate indeed is that 

 Peregrine which succeeds in hatching its eggs and rearing 

 its young in safety. 



The persecution of the Peregrine Falcon is, I venture 

 to suggest, a misguided and unfortunate policy, and can 

 never be justified when only a single pair of the birds are 

 nesting on a moor. In very few districts, indeed, is the 

 Peregrine sufficiently numerous to justify its destruction, 

 and by an irony of fate it is in these very districts that its 

 nesting site is so inaccessible that it is next to impossible 

 to waylay the parents or their brood. In putting forward 

 an appeal for the protection of the Peregrine Falcon, I 

 fully realise that the birds do certainly capture a number 

 of Grouse, and strike down a victim even for the mere 

 pleasure of killing. But there can also, I think, be little 

 doubt that the supposed damage is considerably greater 

 than that actually worked. Personally, I have never yet 

 seen a Grouse at a Peregrine's eyrie, though I am ready to 

 admit that my experience is in this respect an exceptional 

 one But still I venture to suggest that there are other 

 birds which form more frequent prey to the Seabhag. 



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