34 FALCONID.K. 



service of my friend John Dawson Downcs, Esq. of Old 

 Gunton Hill, Suffolk, and who also manages the Heron 

 Hawks kept by subscription in Norfolk, is (I believe) the 

 only efficient falconer by profession now remaining ; all the 

 others whom I remember are either dead or worn out, and 

 there has been no inducement to younger men to follow the 

 employment of their forefathers." 



The Peregrine Falcon builds on high rocks on various 

 parts of the coast, but is more numerous in Scotland than in 

 England. The eggs are from two to four in number, about 

 two inches long by one inch and eight lines in breadth, 

 mottled all over with pale reddish brown. The old Falcons 

 obtain a plentiful supply of food for themselves and their 

 young by preying upon the numerous aquatic birds that rear 

 their young in the same localities. Mr. Selby, in one of his 

 papers on the Birds observed in the vicinity of St. Abb's 

 Head, says, " that the eyrie of the Peregrine Falcon had 

 long been established there. A pair of old ones and a pair 

 of young birds were seen at this visit. It was from this lo- 

 cality that the late Mr. Baird of Newbyth usually obtained 

 his cast of Hawks, for each of which he gave the persons who 

 undertook the perilous task of scaling the precipice one 

 guinea. The eastings of these birds, Mr. Selby noticed, were 

 scattered in great profusion upon the tops of the cliffs : those 

 examined were almost wholly composed of the bones and 

 feathers of gulls and other aquatic fowl ; others were mixed 

 with the feathers of partridges, and the bones of rabbits and 

 young hares." 



Falcons, Hawks, and probably most, if not all other birds 

 of prey, from feeding on birds and animals covered with 

 feathers or fur, and thus swallowing a (pumtity of indigestible 

 matter, relieve themselves by throwing it up in the form of 



