68 FALCONID^E. 



bands ; under surface of wings white, regularly banded with ashy black ; bill 

 plumbeous ; cere yellow ; feet yellow, nails black : whole length 20 inches, 

 wing 14'0, tail 6-7. Female similar, but larger. 



Hab. Old and New Worlds. 



The Peregrine Falcon is found throughout the Argentine Republic, but 

 is nowhere numerous, and is not migratory; nor is it " essentially a 

 duck-hawk," as in India according to Dr. Anderson, for it preys chiefly 

 -on land birds. It is solitary, and each bird possesses a favourite resting- 

 place or home, where it spends several hours every day, and also roosts 

 at night. Where there are trees it has its chosen site where it may 

 always be found at noon ; but on the open treeless pampas a mound of 

 earth or the bleached skull of a horse or cow serves it for a perch, and 

 here for months the bird may be found every day on its stand. It sits 

 upright and motionless, springs suddenly into the air when taking 

 flight, and flies in a straight line, and with a velocity which few birds 

 can equal. Its appearance always causes great consternation amongst 

 other birdsj for even the Spur-winged Lapwing, the spirited persecutor 

 of all other Hawks, flies screaming with terror from it. It prefers 

 attacking moderately large birds, striking them on the wing, after 

 which it stoops to pick them up. While out riding one day, I saw a 

 Peregrine sweep down from a great height and strike a Burrowing-Owl 

 to the earth, the Owl having risen up before me. It then picked it 

 up and flew away with it in its talons. 



The Peregrine possesses one very curious habit. When a plover,, 

 pigeon, or duck is killed, it eats the skin and flesh of the head and 

 neck, picking the vertebrae clean of the flesh down to the breast-bone, 

 and also eating the eyes, but leaving the body untouched. I have found 

 scores of dead birds witli head and neck picked clean in this way ; and 

 once I watched for some months a Peregrine which had established 

 itself near my home, where it made havoc among the Pigeons ; and I 

 frequently marked the spot to which it carried its prey, and on going to 

 the place always found that the Pigeon's head and neck only had been 

 stripped of flesh. The Burrowing-Owl has an analogous habit, for 

 it invariably rejects the hind quarters of the toads and frogs which it 

 captures. 



At the approach of the warm season the Peregrines are often seen in 

 twos and threes violently pursuing each other at a great height in the 

 air, and uttering shrill piercing screams, which can be heard distinctly 

 after the birds have disappeared from sight. 



