PEREGRINE FALCON 53 
two such attacks a year on the part of each Eagle 
would be enough to account for the smell on so 
many birds. If skunks could be easily conquered 
by Eagles, they would not be so numerous or so 
neglectful of their safety as we find them. 
PEREGRINE FALCON 
Falco peregrinus 
Above plumbeous, lightest on the rump, more or less distinctly 
barred with black ; head and cheeks black ; beneath white tinged with 
cinnamon; abdomen and thighs traversed by narrow black bands ; 
cere and feet yellow; length 20, wing 14 inches. Female similar; 
a third larger. 
THE Peregrine Falcon is found throughout the 
Argentine Republic, but is nowhere numerous, and 
is not migratory; nor is it “‘ essentially a duck- 
hawk,’’ as in India according to Dr. Anderson, for 
it preys chiefly on land birds. It is solitary, and 
each bird possesses a favourite resting-place or home, 
where it spends several hours every day, and also 
roosts at night. Where there are trees it has its 
chosen site where it may always be found at noon ; 
but on the open treeless pampas a mound of earth 
or the bleached skull of a horse or cow serves it for 
a perch, and here for months the bird may be found 
every day on its stand. It sits upright and motionless, 
springs suddenly into the air when taking flight, and 
flies in a straight line, and with a velocity which few 
birds can equal. Its appearance always causes great 
