PEREGRINE FALCON. 49 



and the ground rough. While the bird kept the claws 

 of one foot fastened in the back of its prey, the other was 

 dragged along the ground till it had an opportunity to 

 lay hold of a tuft of grass ; by which it was enabled to 

 stop the course of the hare, whose efforts to escape I do 

 think would have torn the hawk asunder, if it had not 

 been provided with the leathern defences which have been 

 mentioned." 



Lieutenant R. F. Burton, in his interesting book on 

 Falconry in the Valley of the Indus, tells us, "when 

 the Falcon is flown at the hare she is invariably breeched, 

 a broad leather thong being passed from the right to the 

 left knee, where it is securely buttoned. Were this pre- 

 caution neglected, the natives assure us there is imminent 

 danger of the Hawk's being split up." 



This species has been most aptly termed peregrinus, 

 since it has been found in very distant parts of the world ; 

 its extraordinary powers of flight being probably one 

 great cause of extensive geographical distribution. In 

 this country it makes its nest on the high cliffs between 

 Freshwater Gate and the lighthouse, near the Needle 

 Rocks, and in some other parts of the Isle of Wight. In 

 Devonshire and Cornwall it is known by the name of the 

 Cliff-Hawk. Pennant has recorded a locality on the rocky 

 coast of Caernarvonshire. The young have been obtained 

 from the rocks about Holyhead, and the Great Orme's 

 Head; and in Ireland, Mr. Thompson informs me it is 

 not uncommon in rocky situations inland as well as marine. 

 Mr Selby, in the Proceedings of the Berwickshire Natu- 

 ralists' Club, has noticed both adult birds and their young 

 in the vicinity of St. Abb's Head ; in Scotland it is also 

 well known, and Sir William Jardine, in his Notes on this 

 bird, in his edition of Wilson's American Ornithology, 

 names the Vale of Moffat in Dumfriesshire, the Bass Rock, 



VOL. i. E 



