PEEEGRINE FALCONS 235 



great talons is plainly visible. On a well-grassed 

 ledge (the Peregrine is not particular as to the 

 site being bare, though the eggs are never laid on 

 rock), they are often unable, or do not trouble, to 

 remove the herbage ; consequently, I have seen 

 clutches reposing on at least a partially green bed, 

 or on a yellowish one, should they be laid on cotton- 

 grass or wood-rush. In one eyrie I saw in 

 Ireland there was such a thick layer of cotton- 

 grass under the four eggs (all of which touched, 

 curiously enough ; usually they do not, on which 

 point I shall have a word or two to say presently), 

 that no soil showed at all, a state of affairs usually 

 only noticeable (as here) in a brand new eyrie, 

 since the old favourites, being much soiled, burnt, 

 and pressed by the decaying remnants of prey, and 

 the droppings and weight of the eyasses, lose in 

 consequence all their vegetation, and from long use, 

 combined with the gradual pulverization of the 

 ancient bones of the victims, assume in time a 

 well-worn, dusty appearance. 



Even with fresh eggs a few featherr and per- 

 haps a bone or so from different victims may be 

 found actually in the eyrie (of course when the 

 young are hatched the place is smothered with 

 them), which sometimes smells atrociously, 

 especially when a covered site is used ; but the 

 Peregrine at all events seems to shed and most 

 probably because there is no nest proper for them 

 to cling to few feathers and little down (which 



