THE FEMALE TEREGRIXE. 2!25 



falconers, that the lanner and female peregrine are 

 identical ; such are the mystifications attendant on the 

 subject. 



The peregrine falcon is found in most mountainous 

 and rocky situations throughout the temperate and 

 colder parts of Europe ; it is also common in North 

 America and in New Holland. Its migratory character 

 we believe to be only fully developed in cold countries ; 

 with us there is reason to consider it stationary, or at 

 least its migrations are not uniform. From our own 

 experience we agree with the learned editor of INIontague's 

 " Ornithological Dictionary," that there is not a spot on 

 any part of our coast, from north to south, w^here the 

 cliffs rise to the height of three or four hundred feet, 

 but they are scattered on during the breeding seasons, 

 and from which they seldom wholly retire, although 

 they force their young, when fully fledged, to seek 

 fresh quarters. We can affirm that they breed every 

 year on the rocky precipices on the south of the Isle 

 of Wight ; they are not uncommon in the Shetland and 

 Orkney Islands, and are seen on the cliffs of the 

 Hebrides. Throughout the Scotch coasts, particularly 

 on the eastern rocky precipices, they breed annually. 

 Pennant was witness to their existence in Wales, and 

 he particularises the rock of Llandudno in Caernarvon- 

 shire as supplying a very favourite spot for the nidi- 

 fication of peregrine falcons. It is further insinuated 

 that the breed produced here was, in the falconer's 

 phraseology, of "a generous kind," i. e. excellent at 

 plunder and destruction, which character is borne out by 

 a letter extant in the Grladdacth Library, from the Lord 

 Treasurer Burleigh to an ancestor of Sir Eoger Mostyn, 

 in which his lordship thanks him for a present of a 



