234 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



rags, cinders, wood, corks, broken glass and china, 

 orange rind, banana skins, potato and apple 

 peelings, and paper, while in 1905, in the eyrie 

 itself, and almost touching the eggs, lay an 

 oblong strip of cardboard. This was asking for 

 trouble. 



Nest there is none, the Peregrine never, in spite 

 of assertions to the contrary, obviously made by 

 naturalists who were no cragsmen, makes a nest, 

 though sometimes the eggs are laid in the one- 

 time habitation of a Raven, rarely in that of a 

 Buzzard or Crow, or in a Jackdaw's home in a big 

 hole. I have seen this last-mentioned species' nest 

 used by Peregrines on several occasions, though 

 usually all the woolly lining has been entirely 

 removed, and I remember one such which, for all 

 its wide entrance, was so restricted that it was 

 clear that the Peregrines must have remained in a 

 crouching posture once they were within, even 

 when not brooding. Such a position is, however, 

 most unusual. 



The usual receptacle for the handsome, thick- 

 shelled eggs, is a scratching from eight inches to 

 a foot across and from J in. to 3 in. or 4 in. deep 

 (according to the nature of the soil, the shallowest 

 usually being those on chalk), in the earthen floor 

 of the selected ledge or chamber. If the soil is 

 not too thick and dusty I have once or twice seen 

 eggs in such a very dusty hole that all semblance 

 to a scrape was lost the furrowing of the bird's 



