THE PEREGRINE FALCON 67 



A Grouse in the early stages of disease offers a more easy 

 mark than such a bird in the full vigour of health, and as 

 a result will, in all probability, be captured. But where 

 no birds of prey are present, where the Eagle and the Pere- 

 grine Falcon are considered as vermin and are exterminated 

 so far as is possible, the ravages of the disease continue un- 

 checked, and the moor is decimated in a short space of time. 



In the High North, where game-preserving is not, and 

 where are wild tracts of thinly-populated country, the 

 Peregrine Falcon nests on the ground at times. A re- 

 markable and well-authenticated instance of the affection 

 a Peregrine retains for its nesting site comes from Lap- 

 land, where the same pair of birds, or their descendants, 

 reared their young on the same hillside for a period of 

 well over a hundred years ; and there are certainly, even 

 in this country, nesting stations which have been occupied 

 for the last fifty years without a break. 



The young Peregrines are hatched out about May 15th. 

 At the time of their birth they resemble the young of the 

 Golden Eagle, except for their smaller size, for they are 

 entirely clad in a coat of white down. Compared to the 

 young eagles, their rate of growth is rapid, and before 

 the end of June most of the broods have left the eyrie. 

 For some little time they haunt their nesting site, and 

 even when they are strong on the wing their parents still 

 manifest great solicitude on their behalf, calling restlessly 

 when danger approaches. 



The flight of the Peregrine is one of the most splendid 

 things in all the bird world. It might be compared with 

 that of the Eagle as a battleship with the fleetest torpedo 

 destroyer. The Eagle has the majesty which the Pere- 

 grine can never hope to possess — for the Falcon has not 

 the weight of the King of Birds — but the Peregrine is 

 the fleeter of the two, and its prey falls to it with greater 

 ease. In the gale the Eagle uses his weight with advantage 

 to enable him to forge ahead through the storm ; the Pere- 



