25 



PEKEGKINE. 



PEREGEINE-PALCON. 

 PLATE XIII. 



Falco pcregrinus, LATHAM. FLEMING. 



" communis, LATHAM. SELBT. 



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, and lined more or less with hair. Sometimes the 

 bird will appropriate the old nest of some other species, and sometimes be 

 satisfied with a mere hollow in the bare rock, with occasionally a little 

 earth in it. 



The eggs are two, three, four, or, though but rarely, five in number, 

 and rather inclining to rotundity of form. Their ground colour is 

 light russet red, which is elegantly marbled over with darker shades, 

 patches, and streaks of the same, but they vary much according to 

 the age of the bird. 



One variety has the ground colour a rich yellowish brown, elegantly 

 mottled over with blots of very deep red, and here and there a little 

 pink. 



A second has the ground colour the same, but of a lighter shade, 

 and with only a few of the red markings, and lighter in hue. 



A third is of a general light orange yellow ground, with a few 

 patches of a darker shade of the same. 



A fourth is also of light appearance a combination of very light 

 yellow, light green, and light orange. 



VOL. I. 



