406 The Outline of Science 



rarely met with above 5,000 feet, while the greater part of flight, 

 including migration, probably takes place within 3,000 feet of the 

 ground. 



5 



The power of flight has given birds the key to one kind of 

 habitat after another that might otherwise have proved to be too 

 dangerous or too inhospitable. To the conditions of these different 

 haunts, and, in particular, to different modes of procuring food, 

 we see a great wealth of adaptations : there are hunters and fishers, 

 catchers of insects and harvesters of seeds, eaters of crustaceans 

 and eaters of worms, plant-eaters and honey-suckers, scavengers 

 of carrion, and many a "picker up of unconsidered trifles." 



The Hunting of the Peregrine 



Pride of place may be given to the hunters, and, as a type of 

 them, to the Peregrine Falcon, described by the late Professor 

 Alfred Newton as "the most powerful bird for its bulk that flies." 

 It is a strong fierce bird with long pointed wings, spending no 

 time on its comings and goings and dealing death in mid-air with 

 relentless talons ; in spite of game-preserving it still maintains its 

 place as one of the most splendid of native British birds. Its prey 

 consists mainly of other birds, and these it attacks in flight, "stoop- 

 ing" always from above, and .killing, not by force of impact, but 

 by the sheer grip of its claws. "Having arrived within a few feet 

 of its prey," wrote Audubon of the almost identical Duck-Hawk 

 of America, "the falcon is seen protruding his powerful legs and 

 talons to their full stretch. His wings are for a moment almost 

 closed ; the next instant he grapples the prize, which, if too weighty 

 to be carried off, he forces obliquely to the ground, sometimes a 

 hundred yards from where it was seized, to kill it and devour it 

 on the spot. Should this happen over a large extent of water, the 

 falcon drops his prey and sets off in quest of another. On the 

 contrary, should it not prove too heavy, the exulting bird carries 



