PEREGRINE FALCONS 231 



quently chooses as a site for its eyrie some cove 

 or headland close to a coastguard station, a seeming 

 peculiarity which I ascribe to the fact that these 

 dwellings are mainly situate in or near gaps or 

 hollows. These in turn attract the hordes of 

 arriving and departing migratory species, loving, 

 as they do, to follow the course of a valley, however 

 insignificant. From these tired battalions the 

 murderous Falcons, having seized their coign of 

 vantage with no mean cunning, reap many an easy 

 and ill-gotten meal. I am familiar, too, with cer- 

 tain mountain-ranges in Cambria and elsewhere 

 which, lying in the direct route selected by Carrier- 

 Pigeons plying a peaceful avocation between their 

 respective points, provide a generous board and 

 lodging for different pairs of Peregrines. I have, 

 also, on several occasions watched a Peregrine 

 flapping leisurely along above the roofs of seaside 

 towns situate not far from cliffs ; obviously on the 

 prowl for pigeons. 



With one or two solitary exceptions, as for 

 instance the late eyrie on Salisbury Cathedral, the 

 home of the Peregrine, in Britain at all events, 

 must be sought on a cliff, and often only of course 

 by chance, since birds never, as sentimentalists 

 will have you believe, intentionally choose a site 

 which is difficult to reach in the least accessible 

 part of it, a spot which is overhung, sometimes to 

 a fearsome degree. Although on the whole the 

 bird prefers a lofty escarpment, I am none the less 



