CHAPTER XIV. 



PEREGRINE FALCONS. 



IN most parts of Britain, and not least on the south 

 coast, the Peregrine Falcon* has wrongly acquired 

 the reputation of surpassing rarity, some people, 

 indeed, holding that the bird is on the verge of 

 extinction. This state of affairs is partly owing to 

 the sequestration of its haunts, and partly, but 

 more so, to the fact that the species does not 

 advertise itself as freely as do many of its congeners. 

 In fact, if not off hunting, or " skylarking " with 

 its mate during the nuptial season, the Peregrine 

 spends much of its leisure on the cliff-face, standing 

 statuesquely on some knob or buttress far up the 

 steep, merely turning its broad and noble head 

 from side to side periodically to take in any smallest 

 moving object within its ken, as it quietly digests 

 its last ill-gotten meal. A Peregrine at rest on a 

 precipice is by no means the conspicuous figure 

 you might imagine. To begin with, even the 

 female is not a remarkably big bird, seldom if ever 

 exceeding nineteen inches in length, while then its 

 pale, barred breast, if facing you, and especially 

 on a chalk cliff, tones in perfectly with the back- 



* Falco peregrinua Tunst. 



