IV FALCONIDAE 179 
savage adults may even strike the person; nevertheless, Skuas 
and certain Owls are decidedly more dangerous, whereas the 
ordinary Eagle is mild in comparison. The food consists of ducks, 
gullemots, pigeons, grouse, and partridges, varied by rabbits and 
so forth; yet, in spite of the undoubted damage caused to game, 
preservers would be wise to spare a due proportion of individuals 
in view of their utility im killing off the more weakly and diseased 
birds. The two to four eggs, usually finely blotched or thickly 
mottled with rich red on a creamy ground—though one is often 
paler or yellowish—are deposited in a hollow scraped on some bare 
or grassy ledge of a sea-girt or inland chff; but occasionally nests 
in trees are utilized, or broken ground in northern regions. Two or 
more sites are often tenanted in turn. Long distances are traversed 
in search of food, the survivor of a pair mating again marvellously 
quickly, considering the comparatively scanty supply of partners. 
fF. peregrinator (atriceps), the Shaheen or Royal Falcon, of 
India, Ceylon, and Tenasserim, distinguishable by the deep ferru- 
ginous under surface and the general absence of barring, is much 
prized by natives for hawking, as is the docile but delicate and 
less courageous Lanner ( feldeqgi or tanypterus) by the Bedouins. 
The latter is buffish-brown, with ruddy crown and nape, a grey 
tinge towards the rufous-barred tail, and fawn-coloured lower parts 
with brown spots; 1t ranges from Loango and Unyamuesi in 
Africa as far as South Europe and Persia, and lays four eggs— 
lighter than those of the Peregrine—in rocks, ruins, or disused 
birds’ nests, the Dashoor Pyramid being a well-known site. / 
biarmicus, a close ally from South Africa, is nearly spotless below. 
Of the genus Gennaea or “ Desert Falcon,” G. sacer (anarius 
or milvipes), the Saker, found from North Africa and East Europe 
to North China, has brown upper parts mottled with fulvous, 
whitish crown, nape, and lower surface streaked with brown, 
and white markings across the tail A swift and fairly bold 
denizen of open country, it is used for bustard- gazelle- or 
heron - hawking by Indians and Arabs, while it also preys on 
hares, birds, and lizards. It deposits three or four rather pointed 
white eggs, blotched or spotted with various shades of red, 
in a nest of sticks and grass, normally placed in a tree G. 
jJugger, the Luggur of India and Afghanistan, differs in being 
ereyer above and less streaked below, with rufous crown and 
nearly uniform tail, whereas G. mexicana (polyagrus), the Prairie 
