PEREGRINE 



PEREGRINE-FALCON 



PLATE XIII. 



Falco peregrinus, .... LATHAM. FLEMING. 

 Falco communtSj .... LATHAM. SELBY. 



THIS "Falcon gentil," a noble bird, builds its nest early 

 in the spring, and the young are hatched about the 

 first week in May. The old situation is resorted to from year 

 to year. 



The nest is flat in shape, and is placed on a projection, 

 or in a crevice of some rocky cliff. It is fabricated of sticks, 

 sea-weed, and such like materials. Frequently the bird will 

 appropriate the old nest of some other species, and some- 

 times be satisfied with a mere hollow in the bare rock, with 

 occasionally a little earth in it. 



Mr. Howard Saunders in his Manual states that the Pere- 

 grine never builds a nest for itself, but deposits its eggs in 

 April on some overhung ledge of a cliff which is covered 

 with a coating of earth in which it scratches a slight hole, 

 or in the old nests of ravens, crows, or herons, in rocks or 

 trees, occasionally in church towers and steeples, and on the 

 ground in Lapland and Siberia. The eggs he describes as 

 varying from orange to a rich brick red. 



The eggs are generally three, but not uncommonly four in 

 VOL. i. 2 s D 



