29 



It feeds on all game, marine and other birds, often of large size ; and 

 also on hares and rabbits. It has been observed, through telescope, 

 hunting ducks on the Dee. The Peregrine Falcon nests in April, in 

 the same place year after year, in rock hollows on high inaccessible 

 cliffs, laying from two to four very variable eggs (see British Bird Egg 

 Cabinet, drawer 8). It is interesting to note that the helpless young 

 are not protectively coloured by resembling their surroundings, like 

 the young of so many other birds, but are conspicuously white. It is 

 suggested that as the parents (of whom one is always in attendance on 

 the nest) are so formidably armed with beak and claw, the necessity 

 for colour protection has disappeared, and that the conspicuous white- 

 ness serves as a signal to other birds and animals of the risks they run 

 in attempting to prey upon them. There are many examples of such 

 warning colouration in the animal kingdom. 



Case 187. 



COMMON BUZZARD {Buteo vulgaris). 



A much persecuted resident, nesting now only in our lake districts 

 or where it receives least molestation from game-keepers. The food 

 consists chiefly of young rabbits and hares, but reptiles and insects are 

 also eaten. The large nest, of sticks and dead heather, is built in a 

 tree or placed on the ledge of a cliff. Three or four greyish-white 

 eggs, blotched with reddish brown and lilac (see British Bird Egg 

 Cabinet, drawer 9) are usually laid in April. Both birds participate 

 in the incubation of the eggs. 



{The birds in the group are in an immature stage of plumage.) 



Case 188. 



WHITE-TAILED or SEA EAGLE {Haliaetus alhicilla). 



This species is principally observed in England as a migrant in 

 autumn and winter, though it formerly bred on many parts of the 

 coast in the Lake District and it still breeds in the western islands 

 and North-west of Scotland. The immature specimen (wing extended) 

 in the group, was killed at Blundellsands in the winter of 1895. The 

 food consists of the smaller game, i.e., hares, young deer and ducks, 

 and it also feeds largely on carrion. The nest is a huge structure of 

 sticks, added to year by year until it attains an immense size. The 

 site of the nest varies, usually on ledges of cliffs, often on a rock in the 

 middle of a lake, sometimes in trees and rarely on the ground. The 

 two eggs are white or whitish-brown when nest stained (see British 

 Bird Egg Cabinet, drawer 9). They are smaller than the eggs of the 

 •Golden Eagle and somewhat rounder in form. 



