88 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



far from an uncommon bird in England. Few bird-nesters care 

 to hazard a descent down the perpendicular wall of a wild chalk 

 cliff after Peregrine's eggs. Whether the Peregrine can travel 150 

 miles an hour, as has been stated, is hard to say, though the 

 experiments now being tried in Germany may help to clear up the 

 point ; but their speed of flight is of course immense, and no bird 

 moves faster than a F"alcon in its stoop. How far he can see 

 it is impossible to say, but that his vision is good up to five miles 

 is beyond all doubt. A phenomenon familiar enough to the 

 falconer goes to illustrate the Peregrine's long sight. It is this. 

 It frequently happens that when a trained Falcon is flown in a 

 district where Peregrines have never been seen, a wild Peregrine 

 will suddenly appear as if by magic, coming from no one can say 

 where, to toy for a time with the trained bird. Here is a fact 

 well established, the more difficult of explanation because it 

 occurs at a time of the year when Peregrines are not on migration. 

 Again, if one of a pair no matter of which sex be killed at 

 nest, the survivor, in the course of the next three days, will h? found 

 to have mated again; and this has been known to happen three 

 times over in the same instance, whether it was the male or the 

 female that had lost its life. 



The Peregrine has nested for many consecutive years in the 

 spire of Salisbury Cathedral, and I have read somewhere an 

 account of how a Canon went regularly to take a teal or wild duck 

 for his dinner from the nest. 



There are three British Falcons yet to be touched upon the 

 Merlin, the Hobby, and the Kestrel. 



There is about the little Merlin a dash and go. The traveller 

 between London and Edinburgh who keeps his eyes open is pretty 



