308 PEREGRINE FALCON. 



very robust, and wonderfully formed for rapine : its 

 breast was plump and muscular ; its thighs long, 

 thick, and brawny; and its legs remarkably short 

 and well-set : the feet were armed with most for- 

 midable, sharp, long talons : the eyelids and cere 

 of the bill were yellow ; but the irides of the eyes 

 dusky : the beak was thick and hooked, and of a 

 dark colour, and had a jagged process near the end 

 of the upper mandible on each side: its tail, or train, 

 was short in proportion to the bulk of its body ; yet 

 the wings, when closed, did not extend to the end 

 of the train. From its large and fair proportions, it 

 might be supposed to have been a female ; but I was 

 not permitted to cut open the specimen. For one 

 of the birds of prey, which are usually lean, this was 

 in high case : in its craw were many barley-corns, 

 which probably came from the crop of the wood- 

 pigeon, on which it was feeding when shot : for vo- 

 racious birds do not eat grain ; but, when devouring 

 their quarry, with undistinguishing vehemence, swal- 

 low bones and feathers, and all . matters, indiscrimi- 

 nately *. This falcon was probably driven from the 

 mountains of North Wales or Scotland, where they 

 are known to breed, by rigorous weather and deep 

 snows that had lately fallen. 



* The bones and feathers are swallowed naturally, and assist 

 to promote the digestion. The Abbe Spallanzani, in his experi- 

 ments on various birds and animals, by changing gradually the 

 food, at last brought some of the falcons to live on a vegetable 

 diet ; and, as a reverse, fed a pigeon upon animal substances 

 proving that, by degrees, the natural food of an animal may be 

 changed, for a time at least, without-harm. W. J. 



