PEREGRINE FALCOX. 177 



burgh, observing by the way the manners of rabbits, 

 rooks, and Anglo-Saxons. 



In addition to the information respecting the pere- 

 grine falcon, as observed in North America, contained 

 in the first volume of the " Ornithological Biography," 

 Mr Audubon has favoured me with the following notes, 

 taken since the publication of that volume. 



" Although I have never found this species breeding 

 in the middle districts of the Union, I saw it on the 

 Florida Keys, in May and June, or about the period at 

 which, in the following year, I found many pairs with 

 eggs and young on the coasts of Labrador. I imagine 

 that those seen in the Floridas in summer must have 

 bred on the more elevated rocky shores of the island of 

 Cuba, or were sterile individuals. The former opinion 

 is the more likely, that the birds were in pairs, and 

 after seizing the young of the white-headed pigeons, 

 just able to fly, made off in the direction of the island 

 mentioned, bearing their prey in their talons, which, 

 had they not intended it for their young, they would 

 have in all probability devoured on the spot, as is their 

 usual manner when without young. 



" Tlie notion that tlie peregi'ine falcon breed&in deep 

 swamps, and on tall trees, amid herons, as held by the 

 editor of the reprint of Wilson's American Ornithology, 

 is, I think, without foundation ; for were this the case, 

 I could not easily have failed in meeting with its nest, 

 in the course of my many journeys through our swamps 

 and woods. I have never seen a nest of this species on 

 a tree, but have always found it placed on the shelf of 

 some high rock overhanging the sea, or at farthest in 

 view of it, and generally towards the summit of the 



