CHAPTER IX 



WITH THE PEREGRINE AND MERLIN IN 

 BRECONSHIRE 



SPEAKING of the Peregrine, Mr. Cambridge Phillips, 

 in his " Birds of Breconshire," says as follows : " I 

 think slightly increasing. I have known of several 

 specimens killed some years ago, but it never bred 

 here. I am enabled to state this as a fact from 

 the information I received from old Morgan the 

 falconer, &c." 



Firstly, how can a bird like the Peregrine slightly 

 increase in a county where we are told it has never 

 bred ; for as all naturalists and sportsmen know 

 and indeed as its name implies the Peregrine is a 

 wanderer of the first water, and many doubtless cross 

 the hills every autumn and winter both in Brecon- 

 shire and the other Welsh counties. " Slightly 

 increasing " is therefore surely a term which ought 

 to be applied either to a breeding species or a regular 

 winter migrant. Secondly, and without further pre- 

 amble, I may say that this dashing Falcon does 

 breed in Breconshire, and doubtless has for many 

 years. 



