Nesting -habits o/Falco peregrinus pealei. 475 



never been discovered. They do not mix with the Ancient 

 Murrelets' colony on Langara Island. 



Two interesting sights were seen while collecting Peale's 

 Falcons. On April 20th there were no Puffins at the 

 island ; a few days later there was a flight of them, perhaps 

 100, at their yearly haunt on a rocky hillside, and, being 

 in the neighbouring bay all day, it was interesting to see 

 what was apparently their method of gathering. They were 

 increasing surely, not by flocks, but by single birds. They 

 came at intervals of a few minutes from the Pacific Ocean 

 — one at a time, never two, — and helped to swell the number 

 steadily increasing at the breeding-ground. The other sight 

 was a three days' constant stream of Shearwaters in an 

 almost unbroken line past Langara Island, all heading from 

 Dixon Entrance and disappearing to the north-west towards 

 the Aleutian Islands. No doubt these are the migrating 

 hosts, returning to spend their winter in our summer seas 

 after breeding in the Antarctic. 



Peale's Falcon lays, of course, four eggs, like its congener 

 the Duck-Hawk ; the eggs are indistinguishable from those 

 of the latter, being red to match the hollow of rotten wood 

 amongst the ddbris of trees growing at the top or on the 

 ledges of cliffs, at any elevation above the water-line from 

 20 to 500 feet. One clutch was found upon a grassy slope 

 dividing a lower cliff from an upper one, but always amongst 

 the roots of a spruce-tree, which gives shelter to the sitting 

 bird in rainy weather. Only one eyrie was foutid differently 

 situated, and that was on a ledge sheltered by an over- 

 hanging rock ; the nest had no red rotten wood, and, 

 interesting to note, the eggs were the palest seen. 



When the complete clutch is taken, before incubation 

 begins, the bird begins her fresh set close by the first in 

 about ten days, but if incubation has advanced it will be 

 more like three weeks before the new set is laid. Whether 

 the bird would make a third attempt to raise a brood, there 

 was not time to discover. They must be accustomed to 

 losing their broods, for the Indians have many superstitions 

 about them — one being that the best way to bring a west 



