PEREGRINE FALCON, 29 
§. ICELAND FALCON.—(falco Islandicus), 
Neither of these birds breed in Britain, and they are only occa- 
sional and somewhat rare visitants. Whatever notice can be 
afforded to them, will be met with in the Appendix. 
9. PHREGRINE FALCON. (falco peregrinus). 
There was a time at which this bird was abundant enough in 
our island. Jt still breeds in many parts of both England and 
Scotland, though much more commonly in the latter country. 
But in the feudal times there would have been no difficulty to 
“the young egg-collector—if such beings existed then—in meeting 
with the nest of the Peregrine, in districts suitable to their 
breeding habits and requirements. Although some consideration, 
it is true, might have been advisable previously to appropriating 
the contents of the 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, indeed, 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 
were made responsible, by the terms of their tenure, for the safe 
keeping of the noble birds and their offspring. One such site ig 
in Goathland, on the line of the Pickering and Whitby Railway ; 
and itis 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), Killmg-nab Scar has always been a site of that 
Falcon’s nidification. Many of its breeding 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, Hagle-cliff, are among the tallest 
and least accessible rocks of the sea coast. The nest itself is 
placed on some projection, possibly within some fissure, and is 
