240 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



April 27th, while four or five days later a friend 

 of his procured other two from the same hole. 

 Now, since the Peregrine never makes up its 



' clutch " to the correct number after losing one 

 or more of the complement (indeed very few species 

 do), I am disposed to regard this case as a genuine 

 "five." Of course, one has heard and known of 

 instances where this year's eggs reposed only a 

 matter of inches from some addled specimens of the 

 previous spring. Mr. Carroll tells me of a case 

 where a friend of his on going to take an eyrie 

 rather late in April, found on the ledge two fresh 

 "sets" of eggs of four each. What had hap- 

 pened was, of course, this : early in the month the 

 original female shot just after she had completed 

 her laying had deposited one " four," whereupon 

 her bereaved mate had speedily taken unto himself 



' number two," who promptly laid four more, 

 and moreover selected a spot for her belongings on 

 the selfsame shelf. What a rich haul ! 



This procuring of a fresh mate brings me to 

 the issue and a remarkably interesting issue it 

 is too of how rapidly a bereaved bird of prey 

 will acquire a fresh wife or husband, as the case 

 may be, sometimes in the space of a few hours, 

 and sometimes, indeed, more than once during 

 at all events the early part of the breeding-season. 

 For example, in less than a month (March) I have 

 known a female Peregrine get three husbands one 

 after the other, just as they came to grief. The 



