Their Eggs and Nests. 45 



said nest for cabinet purposes. The right hand of the 

 fortunate collector would have been the penalty in 

 those days of strict " game laws." So stringent, in- 

 deed, were the provisions for preserving the Peregrine, 

 that the customary breeding haunt of a pair was 

 placed under the especial care of the occupiers of the 

 land in the immediate vicinity, and they weie made 

 responsible, by the terms of their tenure, for the safe 

 keeping of the noble birds and their offspring. One 

 such site is in Goathland, on the line of the Pi(;kerinof 

 and Whitby Railway ; and it is an interesting fact in 

 the nesting habits of the Peregrine, that until within 

 a recent period (and it is believed at the present time 

 also), Killing-nab Scar has always been a site of that 

 Falcon's niditication.^ Many of its Ijreeding places, 

 perhaps like others in the interior, known time out of 

 mind by some name derived from the circumstance of 

 their being thus appropriated, such as Falcon-scar, 

 Hawk-scar, Eagle-clifl', are among the tallest and least 

 accessible rocks both in the interior and on the sea 

 coast. The nest itself is placed on some projection, 

 possibly w^ithin some fissure, and is made of sticks, or 

 seaweed from the coast, and is lined with some hair, 

 on which, for the hollow is not deep, the eggs repose. 

 These are from two to four in number, often vary a 

 good deal in size (probably according to the age of the 

 laying bird), and not less in the markings and mottliugs 

 which pervade the entire surface. A reference to the 



lit has bred in tliis vicinity more than once within the last half 

 score years. I have had the details of more tlian one or two in- 

 stances (two in the parish of Fylingdales) sent me only three or four 

 years ago. 



