38 FALCOXID-E. 



noble birds rear their young, returning to tlie same spot, for 

 the same purpose, many years in succession. This species 

 breeds annually in the Shetland Isles, and is found also in 

 Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Lapland. Pennant, in his 

 Arctic Zoology, includes the Peregrine as an inhabitant of 

 the Uralian and Siberian Mountains ; and it is found also in 

 Greenland. In North America and the United States this 

 species is well known, and its habits are described by the 

 various naturalists who have written on the birds of that 

 country. Captain King, when surveying the Straits of 

 Magellan, found two birds which he considered to be young 

 Peregrines. Mr. Vigors and Dr. Horsfield have included 

 this species in their Catalogue of the Birds of New Holland, 

 published in the Transactions of the Linncan Society ; and 

 Dr. Andrew Smith has recorded it as inhabiting the vicinity 

 of the Cape of Good Hope. 



The whole length of an adult Peregrine Falcon is from 

 fifteen to eighteen inches, depending on the sex and age of 

 the bird. The beak is blue, approaching to black at the 

 point ; the cere and eyelids yellow, the irides dark hazel 

 brown ; the top of the head, back of the neck, and a spot 

 below the eye, nearly black ; the back and upper surface 

 bluish slate or ash colour, becoming lighter at every succeed- 

 ing moult, the males usually the most so : the feathers of the 

 back, wing-coverts, and tail, barred with a darker tint ; the 

 primary wing-feathers brownish black, the inner webs barred 

 and spotted with rufous white ; the front of the neck Avhite, 

 with dark longitudinal lines ; the breast rufous white, with 

 dark brown transverse bars ; the flanks, under tail-coverts, 

 and the under surface of the tail-feathers, barred trans- 

 versely with dark brown and greyish white ; legs and toes 

 yellow, the claws black. The figure here ffiven was taken 



