PEREGRINE FALCON. 119 



which may now be likened to shrieks of anger or 

 despair. Their patience apparently exhausted, 

 a sailing flight is made to some neighbouring 

 pinnacle, where more plaintive cries are from 

 time to time uttered, or the male will, far out of 

 gun-shot above, survey the scene. The least 

 movement or noise of the intruding party, will 

 again bring both parents to the spot, with, if 

 possible, a more rapid passing flight and louder 

 cries. In such situations I have never found it 

 difficult to procure at least one bird, and some- 

 times both, and in either case have always, 

 in the following season, found the cliff again 

 tenanted, and the nest commonly placed on 

 the same spot. A figure of the egg is given 

 plate II. fig. 1. 



The Peregrine is a bird of wide distribution, 

 though a constant native only of the wildest and 

 most mountainous districts ; thus, though it has 

 been found in America, it is of more rare occur- 

 rence than the Hawks, which delight in wooded 

 tracts, and is scarce, therefore, in the wooded parts 

 of the fur countries.* It is migratory in Loui- 

 siana, and seldom occurs in the middle and 

 southern States, while, in some parts of the United 

 States, Audubon thinks they may breed ; and toe 

 Falls of Niagara, mentioned as one station, 



* Faun. Bor. Am. u. p. 24. 



