~ PEREGRINE FALCON. 29 
makes his stoop as soon as he gets above the Heron, who evades it by a shift, 
and thus gives the second Hawk time io get up and to stoop in his turn. 
In what is deemed a good flight this is frequently repeated, and the three 
birds often mount to a great height in the air. When one of the Hawks 
seizes his prey the other soon binds to him, as it is termed, and, buoyant 
from the motion of their wings, the three descend together to the ground 
with but little velocity. The falconer must lose no time in getting hold 
of the Heron’s neck when he is on the ground, to prevent him from injuring 
the Hawks. It is then, and not when he is ia the air, that he will use 
his beak in his defence. Hawks have indeed sometimes, but very rarely, 
been hurt by striking against the Heron’s beak when stooping ; but this 
has been purely by accident, and not (as has been said) by the Heron 
presenting his beak to his pursuer as a means of defence. When the 
Heron flies down wind he is seldom taken, the Hawks are in great danger 
of being lost, and, as the flight is in a straight line, it affords but little 
sport.” 
The Peregrine has the general colour of the upper parts a bluish or slaty 
grey, barred with a darker tint, except the head and a broad moustachial 
patch descending from the gape, which are black; the iower plumage is 
white, suffused with buff, spotted on the throat and upper breast and 
transversely barred on the remainder with blackish. Cere and legs bright 
yellow ; iris dark brown ; bill horn-colour, becoming lighter at the base. 
The female resembles the male, but is much larger. Young birds in first 
plumage have the upper parts ashy brown, darkest on the head, each 
feather edged with rufous ; the underparts whitish, longitudinally streaked 
with brownish; tail irregularly barred and tipped with white. In the 
young birds the cere and eyelids are blue. The Peregrine Falcon preseuts | 
great individual diversity in the colours of its plumage, light and dark 
forms of this bird occurring often in the same nest. 
There are no less than five tropical forms of the Peregrine, all somewhat 
resembling each other, and all probably only subspecifically distinct from 
it. Asmight be expected, they are all darker on the upper parts and more 
rufous on the underparts. The South-African form has been called 
minor : it has the underparts below the breast much more regularly barred, 
but is chiefly distinguished by its smaller size, the males varying in length 
of wing from 103 to 114 inches instead of from 12 to 13 inches, and the 
females from 124 to 13 inches instead of from 134 to 144 inches. There 
are two Indian forms, which do not differ much in size from the typical 
bird: they are very nearly allied to each other; and every intermediate 
form is found between them. In North-west India F. atriceps occurs, with 
the underparts below the breast slate-grey and very closely barred; and 
in East and South India we find F. perigrinator, with the underparts below 
the breast very rufous and with only a few spots. In Australia, Sumatra, 
