THE FALCON. 61 



In Meyer's ' Britisli Birds ' tlie nest is saicT 

 to be composed of sticks. We have found 

 nothing but a shght hollow scraped on the' 

 bare rock, a fit cradle for these bold and hardy 

 birds. The eggs, three in number, are of a 

 handsome, rich, dark red. Generally, one is 

 much lighter than the other two. Few people 

 have the slightest idea how destructive they 

 are to all the bkds we most value. This arises 

 a good deal, we believe, from naturalists ex- 

 amining the contents of their nests generally 

 in parts of the country where game is nearly 

 extinct, and, of course, finding few traces of 

 it. Or a single pair are occasionally tole- 

 rated, as Lord Lilford states, in districts like 

 certain parts of Perthshire which are so 

 pecuharly favourable to grouse, and where ^ 

 from all other vermin having been for many 

 years carefLilly destroyed, grouse are so very 

 numerous that the depredations of the falcon are 

 scarcely noticed ; and sportsmen bag thirty or 

 forty brace a day instead of sixty or seventy 



