THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 7 



head gamekeeper to the Earl of Lauderdale, states that, 

 about fifty years ago, the Peregrine nested annually on a 

 precipice three or four miles up the Longcroft Water, in the 

 parish of Lauder. 



Although it does not now breed in any of the inland 

 districts of the county, it occasionally makes its appearance 

 in localities at a distance from the coast. A male fre- 

 quented the tall trees by the side of the Tweed near 

 Paxton House for a short time in the summer of 1871, 

 and a female was killed near Leitholm, on the 8th of May 

 1875, by a man who was shooting Cushats, the Falcon 

 having swooped down at a stuffed Wood Pigeon which 

 he had placed on the ground as a decoy. 1 Dr. Stuart of 

 Chirnside records that, on the 14th of January 1880, a 

 Peregrine was captured by a gamekeeper at Edington, who, 

 observing a Cushat newly killed near the place where 

 young Pheasants were usually reared, set a trap by the side 

 of the dead bird and secured the Falcon, which was in 

 immature plumage. 2 In July 1881 a specimen was trapped 

 near Quixwood. 



The Peregrine Falcon is generally to be found on the 

 sea-coast of the county at all seasons of the year, but it is 

 probable that the young migrate southwards in autumn 

 along with other passing birds of this species, which then 

 leave the northern regions of Europe for the south with 

 the vast flocks of migrants on which they prey, and return 

 in spring, at both of which periods the Peregrine is seen on 

 migration at the lighthouses on the coasts of England and 

 Scotland. 3 



It chooses for its nesting place a crevice or shelf in some 

 lofty and inaccessible cliff on the sea- coast, and has eggs in 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. ix. pp. 18, 19. 



2 Ibid. vol. ix. p. 387. 



3 Reports on the Migration of Birds, 1870-86. 



