104 BRITISH BIRDS 



solitary female will even hatch and carefully bring up 

 young ducks and chicken. 



The Duck Hawk. See Harrier (Marsh). 



The Peregrine Falcon. 



This is a bold and handsome bird, as courageous as 

 docile, and as fearless as beautiful. It was formerly in 

 much request and used to be trained to attack Bustards 

 (now, alas I extinct in Britain), " Herons and Bitterns," 

 and other large birds, and a well-taught "cast" or pair 

 fetched a high price. 



The habitat of this species is a very wide one, including 

 America, Asia and Africa, "from Greenland's icy moun- 

 tains to India's coral strand" and all intervening places, 

 which, considering the great endurance of the bird and its 

 wonderful capacity for flight, no less than its extreme 

 hardihood, is not to be wondered at. It is now rare in 

 Britain, and will probably soon be extinct, for it is a 

 poacher and offends against the sacred game-laws. 



The Peregrine feeds principally upon other birds, attack- 

 ing, killing and bearing off in its talons some as large as 

 itself, or even larger; but it also preys on small quad- 

 rupeds, having been known to master even a hedgehog in 

 spite of that animal's formidable panoply of spines. Cats 

 have occasionally been attacked, and sometimes have turned 

 the tables on the aggressor, while others have succumbed 

 to the Peregrine's ferocious and determined assault. 



It pairs in the spring, the female as usual being the 

 larger of the two. The nest is built on a ledge of rock in 

 an inaccessible position, and is resorted to year after year, 

 by a new couple of tenants if the old ones have been 

 destroyed; or if one of the pair is killed the survivor 

 promptly finds a partner, and the process of incubation, 

 or of feeding the young, goes on as before. The eggs 

 are generally four in number, of globular form, light red 

 in colour dotted over with patches of a darker shade. 

 Incubation last for about three weeks, and both parents 

 take part in nourishing and defending the young. 



