54 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
consternation amongst Shy He for even the Spur- 
winged Lapwing, the spirited persecutor of all other 
Hawks, flies screaming with terror from it. It prefers 
attacking moderately large birds, striking them on 
the wing, after which it stoops to pick them up. 
While out riding one day I saw a Peregrine sweep 
down from a great height and strike a Burrowing- 
Owl to the earth, the Owl having risen up before 
me. It then picked it up and flew away with it in 
its talons. 
The Peregrine possesses one very curious habit. 
When a Plover, Pigeon, or Duck is killed, it eats the 
skin and flesh of the head and neck, picking the 
vertebre clean of the flesh down to the breast-bone, 
and also eating the eyes, but leaving the body 
untouched. I have found scores of dead birds with 
head and neck picked clean in this way; and once 
I watched for some months a Peregrine which had 
established itself near my home, where it made 
havoc among the Pigeons; and I frequently marked 
the spot to which it carried its prey, and on going 
to the place always found that the Pigeon’s head and 
neck only had been stripped of flesh. The Burrow- 
ing Owl has an analogous habit, for it invariably 
rejects the hind quarters of the toads and frogs which 
it captures. 
At the approach of the warm season the Peregrines 
are often seen in twos and threes violently pursuing 
each other at a great height in the air, and uttering 
shrill, piercing screams, which can be heard distinctly 
after the birds have disappeared from sight. 
