The Birds of Pembrokeshire. 53 
PEREGRINE FALCON, falco peregrinus—Resident. The cliffs 
along the Pembrokeshire coast were once famous for their 
Falcons. In his description of Milford Haven, old Drayton says, 
in his ‘f Polyolbion ” :— 
‘* By Nature, with proud cliffs environed about, 
To crown the goodly road ; where builds the falcon stout, 
Which use the gentil call ; whose fleet and active wings 
It seems that Nature made when most she thought of Kings ; 
Which manag’d to the lure her high and gallant flight, 
The vacant, sportful man so greatly doth delight. 
That with her nimble quills his soul doth seem to hover, 
And by the very pitch that lusty bird doth cover, 
That those proud eyries bred whereas the scorching sky 
Doth singe the sandy wilds of spiceful Barbary ; 
Or underneath our pole, where Norway’s forest wide, 
Their high cloud-touching heads in winter snow do hide, 
Out-brave not this our kind in mettal, nor exceed 
The falcon which sometimes the British cliffs so breed.” 
An old map of the county, published many years ago by T. 
Kitchen, and dedicated to Sir William Owen, Bart., has printed 
on its margins sundry information respecting the local antiquities 
and natural history. In those days the Peregrine Falcon was 
probably far more numerous than it is now, and the map 
quaintly states that “in the rocks about the promontory called 
St. David’s Head, excellent Falcons have their aires and breed.” 
About the year 1850 Mr. Tracy considered that from Caldy 
Island round to St. David’s as many as twelve pairs of Peregrine 
Falcons might be counted during the months of May and June. 
There would be many more pairs on the rocky coast between 
St. David’s and Dinas Head. Writing to us in the summer of 
1893, Mr. Howard Saunders states: ‘* There are a pair of 
Peregrines on Dinas Island on the N.W. side, and of Buzzards, 
which have had their nest on the N. side, I think. The 
Peregrines are certainly on the S.W. aspect.” The Rev. C. M. 
Phelps was himself acquainted with some half dozen breeding 
stations of the Peregrine. He says: “One of the Falcon 
strongholds is on a grand range of cliffs in St. Bride’s Bay, some 
250 feet in perpendicular height. In August these cliffs are 
quite purple and golden with heather and gorse; at their base 
