Natural History 407 



it off to a sequestered and secure place." A peregrine can indeed 

 carry a weight almost equal to its own, and a pair nesting on the 

 Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth, have been known to bring grouse 

 and pheasants from the mainland across two or three miles of 

 sea. 



The Peregrine Falcon belongs to the aristocracy of the bird 

 world. It has a haughty stare, a regal dignity, is absolutely fear- 

 less, has great reserve power, and, as Mr. Hudson says, possesses 

 a courage commensurate with its strength, and in hunting an in- 

 fallible judgment. It is one of the most perfect of winged crea- 

 tures, "so well-balanced in all parts, so admirably adapted for 

 speed, strength, and endurance." The lordly falcon is "the terror 

 of the skies." 



"Sooner or later the day always comes in early autumn to 

 birdland when the peewits, feeding in silent battalions together, 

 and the gulls, watching impatiently to rob the peewits of their 

 worms, suddenly arise and wheel in wild disorder to the horizon; 

 when the clustered partridge coveys crouch, like clods to the earth, 

 and the flocks of small birds, feeding in the open fling themselves 

 like a shower of stones into the nearest hedge ; when the blackbird 

 issuing from cover turns before he has flown a yard, and darts 

 back again with a chatter of alarm; when, save for the distant 

 cawing of rooks perched on lookout trees, a parish apart, sudden, 

 perfect stillness holds the landscape. Then the peregrine falcon 

 passes, smiting her way from horizon to horizon, and spreading 

 terror as she goes. Who gave the first warning of her coming it 

 is hard to tell. Possibly it was a rook. But the marvel is that the 

 majority of the birds, being young ones of the year, can never 

 have seen a falcon before ; yet they fling themselves wildly to right 

 and to left long before the speck in the far skies reveals itself to 

 human eyes as a bird of prey." 1 



The Golden Eagle is the largest of our native birds of prey. 

 The well-known lines of Tennyson spring to the mind : 



1 E. K. Robinson, The Country Day by Day. 



