unconcernedly without troubling to pick them up. I remember once watching a 

 Tiercel Peregrine from the shelter of a wood. He suddenly rose high in the air 

 and stooped at the front bird of a small covey of grouse, killing it dead. It fell 

 among some long heather, and after taking a sweep round near the place he 

 flew off and killed a small leveret some distance away, which he carried to a rock 

 on the other side of the glen. On picking up the grouse I found that its skull 

 was split open from the base to the bill as cleanly as if it had been done with 

 a knife. I have frequently seen Falcons kill their prey and leave it, but have 

 generally observed that on these occasions the birds fell in long heather or rank 

 vegetation, and that they were struck very near the ground ; probably also the 

 Falcon was not very hungry, and so did not trouble to alight and pick up his 

 game. 



The Peregrine Falcon kills birds even larger than himself. On such 

 occasions, of course, he cannot carry away his prey, but has to devour it on the 

 spot. Coming over the crags from Loch Skene, in Dumfriesshire, I saw a Heron 

 attacked by a Peregrine ; the former instantly endeavoured to keep above the 

 Falcon, and both birds were at an immense height before the Peregrine stooped 

 and struck his prey. The Heron immediately collapsed and fell straight down, 

 the Falcon letting him get within a hundred feet of the loch before he shot 

 down like a thunderbolt and struck again ; this time he kept his grip and 

 guided his prey to a large rock on the shore, where I afterwards saw him 

 tearing it to pieces at his leisure. 



The Peregrine is a fairly early breeder, and eggs may be taken by the 

 middle of April. On some parts of the west coast, however, they are generally 

 rather later, probably owing to their dependence on the sea-fowl for food for 

 their young. They pair for life, and generally frequent the same district year 

 after year, though the nest is not always built in the same situation ; each pair 

 seems to have two or three favourite spots, which they use in turn. The 

 nest is almost invariably placed on some inaccessible part of the cliff chosen ; 

 if it be in a glen, the side which is not exposed to the sun is usually taken, 

 and an overhanging rock is much preferred, for the shelter which it gives, 

 but a wide outlook is the most indispensable adjunct. Sometimes the Falcon's 

 nest is quite accessible. This is often the case on small uninhabited islands, 

 and I have come across several nests to which one could walk without any 

 climbing at all, the one on the Bass Rock being perhaps the best instance of these. 

 The eggs there were placed on the bare ground at the foot of the old buildings, 

 among a few small tufts of bladder-campion. I revisited this nest when the 

 young were nearly full-fledged, and took the following inventory of the larder 



4 



