PEEEGEINE FALCON. 11 



their first year's plumage. Amongst these was a fine 

 young female, picked up on October 12th, on the Yar- 

 mouth line, near Reedham, having one wing broken at 

 the shoulder-joint, and a deep cut at the base of the 

 upper mandible, from coming in contact with the tele- 

 graph wires. The poor bird, when found, was still alive, 

 but did not long survive its injuries ; whether these were 

 received from its coming in contact with the wires on 

 its nocturnal migration, as occurs so frequently with 

 snipe and woodcocks during the 'autumn, or from its 

 too impetuous chase of some intended victim during 

 the day, it is difficult to determine most probably 

 the former, as an instance is recorded by Messrs, 

 Gurney and Fisher of a young peregrine being killed 

 in the autumn of 1843, by (( dashing during the 

 night against one of the light-houses on our eastern 

 coast." In the early part of 1862 they were again ex- 

 tremely numerous, seven or eight specimens being killed 

 between January and March, in the neighbourhood of 

 Swaffham. Amongst these were a pair of old birds, 

 in magnificent plumage ; and a fine old female was 

 shot at Guiiton, near Cromer, on the 12th Februar}^ 

 and an adult male at Weybourne, on the 3rd of April. 

 In the following autumn two old males and one female 

 were killed in different parts of the county. In January, 

 1863, an old female was shot at Horsey, in the act of 

 carrying off a waterhen, the hawk weighing lib. 15 oz., 

 and its quarry 13oz. A singular instance of deformity 

 in the beak of this falcon, arising probably from some 

 accident, occurred in an old female killed at Woodrising, 

 in April, 1859, by Major Weyland's gamekeeper. In 

 this bird the upper mandible, instead of projecting over 

 the lower with a sharp hooked point, rested upon the 

 under mandible, both being equal in length and much 

 thickened and blunted at the tips. The cutting edges 

 of the beak, however, did not meet at the sides, but had 

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