BIRDS OF PREY. . 
much gratification ; its large size, its graceful manner of 
hovering over the water when on the look-out for its 
prey, and the astonishing rapidity of its plurge when 
darting on its victim, rendering it a conspicuous object. 
It then to my great revret took its d-parture, doubtless 
alarmed at the attacks of the keepers, who viewed its 
successful forays with little favour, The other was 
shot by a keeper on Welbeck Lake a few years 
before. 
Foremost among the typical falcons I am glad to 
include the noble Peregrine (Falco peregrinus), the 
very perfection of a bird. 
By the uninitiated observer in most rural districts, all 
large birds of this kind are classed under the cognomen 
of “hawks,” without discriminating one species from 
another. The falcons, the buzzards, and tie harriers 
are al] undistinguished from each other by country 
people when seen in the air; and I am induced to 
believe that the peregrine is a far more frequent denizen 
of our forest than is generally supposed, for I have noted 
the occnrrence of four individuals in the course of five 
years. Of course they do not breed with us, for we 
have none of the cliffs and headlands on which it 
delights to place its eyrie, but a flight of a few hundred 
miles is nothing to a bird whose speed rivals or excels 
the best efforts of the locomotive, and a journey to or 
from its distant home is soon performed. The keepers 
say they know it, and call it the “blue hawk,” although 
the male of the hen harrier is generally known by this 
name ; but it isso much more frequent than the latter 
species, and differs so greatly in its flight and general 
appearance on the wing, that few who really knew the 
two could mistake them; yet, strange to say, with all 
