64 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



The Grouse, when hard pressed by the Falcon, and realising 

 that its strength is near exhausted, throws itself into any 

 long heather which happens to be near, and crouches 

 motionless in its place of concealment. A Peregrine will 

 rarely take its prey on the ground, and after " waiting on " 

 for a time, in the hopes that its intended victim may rise, 

 the Falcon moves off in search of fresh objects for pursuit. 

 The two favourite birds of the Peregrine are, per- 

 haps, the Golden Plover and the members of the Duck 

 family. At one eyrie I saw the remains of two Teal 

 Duck and a Golden Plover, evidently killed only a 

 very short time before. In the case of the Plover the 

 head had been severed from the victim's body. At the 

 same nest later on in the season I found the remains of a 

 Coot. The nest was quite two hundred feet above the 

 level of the loch, and as the Coot was in all probability 

 close to the surface when captured, it says a good deal for 

 the lifting power of the Peregrine that it was able to rise 

 with its prey to the top of the rock. It is said that a Coot 

 when captured is carried by its head, as affording the most 

 favourable grip. As showing the partiality of the Pere- 

 grine for the Coot, I may mention that an instance is on 

 record of six of these birds being killed by the Falcon 

 in the course of a single day. On one occasion the wing 

 of a Kestrel was found in the eyrie. Pigeons are also cap- 

 tured by the Peregrine, and one has been kno\Mi to take 

 a Starling after no fewer than eight stoops. I have seen 

 the remains of a Lapwing in the nest, and small birds 

 too mutilated to permit of identification. In former 

 times the Peregrine nested on May Island — ^an island 

 situated at the entrance to the Firth of Forth and ten 

 miles out from the Bass Rock, and even here a Grouse was 

 found at the nest. The nearest grouse ground to the 

 Island of May is to be found on the distant Lammermoors 

 or Pentlands — or perhaps on the Ochill Hills in Fife — but 



