OF SELBORNE. 253 



Repeated accounts of this sort, spring and fall, induce us 

 greatly to suspect that house-sioallows have some strong at- 

 tachment to water, independent of the matter of food ; and, 

 though they may not retire into that element, yet they may 

 conceal themselves in the banks of pools and rivers during 

 the uncomfortable months of winter. 



One of the keepers of Wolmer-forest sent me a peregrine- 

 falcon, which he shot on the verge of that district as it was 

 devouring a wood-pigeon. The falco peregrinus, or haggard 

 falcon, is a noble species of hawk seldom seen in the southern 

 counties*. In winter 1767 one was killed in the neighbouring 

 parish of Faringdon, and sent by me to Mr. Pennant into 

 North-Wales* Since that time I have met with none till 

 now. The specimen measured above was in fine preservation, 

 and not injured by the shot: it measured forty-two inches 

 from wing to wing, and twenty-one from beak to tail, and 

 weighed two pounds and an half standing weight. This 

 species is very robust, and wonderfully formed for rapine : 

 it's breast was plump and muscular ; it's thighs long, thick, 

 and brawny; and it's legs remarkably short and well set: the 

 feet were armed with most formidable, 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 : it's tail, or train, was short in pro- 

 portion to the bulk of it's body : yet the wings, when closed, 

 did not extend to the end of the train. From it's 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 it's craw were many barley-corns, which probably 



* [Professor Newton makes the following observation on this passage : 

 " This is a complete mistake. The species breeds, or used to breed, all 

 along the south coast, where the cliffs are steep enough, from Sussex to 

 Devonshire, if not from Kent to Cornwall. White does not seem to 

 have known that this was the common falcon used by falconers. Its 

 occurrence in the interior is by no means infrequent." T. B.] 



b See my tenth and eleventh letter to that gentleman. 



