FALCONS. 3 



habits, a pair frequented Wilton Park (thirty miles 

 inland), during the summer of 1884, and were un- 

 fortunately killed. 



ICELAND FALCON. Falco islandus, Graelin. 



Tarrell, i. p. 46; Dresser, vi. p. 25 ; Falco islandicus, Harting, 

 p. 86 ; F. candicans, Seebohm, i. p. 16 ; Hierofalco islandus, 

 Ibis List, p. 1 02. 



An accidental visitor to Great Britain ; one was 

 found dead in the early part of the present century 

 in Cranbourne Chase, with a pigeon half-eaten by 

 its side, a bone of which had got across its throat 

 and choked it. It is preserved in Viscount Port- 

 man's fine collection of birds at Bryanston. 



PEREGKINE FALCON. Falco peregrinus, Tunstall. 



Yarrell, i. p. 53; Harting, p. 4; Dresser, vi. p. 31 ; Seebohm, 

 i. p. 23 ; Ibis List, p. 102 ; Pulteney's List, p. 2. 



The Peregrine Falcon is the commonest of our 

 larger birds of prey, and at present is well estab- 

 lished in the county, owing to the protection ex- 

 tended to it by many of the landed proprietors. 

 Purbeck is its headquarters, where precipitous cliffs 

 afford an additional protection. In 1884 a nest was 

 robbed from a cliff, but fortunately the old birds 

 were not deterred from again occupying the same 

 site, where, I am glad to say, they nested last 

 year (1886). With the aid of my binocular, I dis- 

 tinctly saw one of the young birds standing on the 

 nest, apparently well fledged, on the grassy ledge of 



