112 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



been there long before a peregrine falcon swept 

 by, and made a dash at the lure, but discovering 

 his mistake, almost at the very moment when he 

 seemed to strike it, rose with the quickness of 

 thought, and flew into a tree about thirty yards 

 from the spot where the farmer lay concealed. 

 The latter, who still imagined it to be a wood- 

 pigeon never before having seen a peregrine 

 fired, and killed the falcon, thus unconsciously 

 destroying his best friend, and depriving himself 

 of a most powerful ally in thinning the ranks 

 of his feathered enemies. 



A falcon was caught in a singular situation 

 last September at the farm of Saddlescombe, 

 between Shoreham and the Devil's Dyke. While 

 engaged in taking sparrows under the thatched 

 eaves of a barn, the farmer was surprised at the 

 sudden plunge of a heavier body into the net, 

 whose violent struggles among the meshes, and 

 the liberal use of its sharp claws, at first induced 

 him to believe that he had captured a cat. It 

 turned out, however, to be a peregrine a bird of 

 the year. 



Although, from a general similarity both in as- 

 pect and structure, the hobby (Falco subbuteo] 

 has been correctly styled a miniature peregrine, 

 yet, unlike that species, it prefers the wooded 

 district of the weald to the Downs or the open 



