24 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



practical ornithologists, since the real interests of 

 our native birds as a whole are often obscured 

 by the vapourings of people absolutely without 

 knowledge of the facts. It may come as a piece 

 of news to writers who vary the abuse of sports- 

 men by pulverising parsons and schoolmasters for 

 destroying rare birds, that many of the former 

 now recognise the value of the Peregrine Falcon 

 as a natural and useful weeder-out of weaklings 

 and disease - stricken birds on grouse moors, and 

 that there are places where it is preserved in 

 moderation for this purpose. 



I know of one or two places in England where 

 it still breeds, or attempts, at periods of a few 

 years, to do so without success. It nests in 

 Wales both on the coast and inland, is fairly 

 common in Ireland, where our illustration was 

 obtained, on the mainland of Scotland and in the 

 Western Isles, in the Shetlands and Orkneys ; and, 

 where the cliffs are high and the country wild 

 and sparsely populated, is perfectly able to take 

 care of its perpetuation as a species. 



The species does not appear to build a nest. 

 My brother has been down to the eyries of several 

 in Scotland and Ireland, and found the eggs lying 

 on the earth and stone chippings in a hollow in 

 the mould resting on the ledge chosen by the 

 bird as a breeding site, or in what appeared in 

 one instance to have been a very old Raven's nest. 



The eggs, numbering from two to four, vary 

 from light orange yellow to pale russet red in 

 ground colour, and are thickly mottled, spotted 

 and clouded with various shades of reddish brown. 

 Neither the bird nor its eggs can very well be 

 mistaken when seen at home on beetling cliffs 

 surrounded, as a rule, by wild, bare country. 



