162 HAWKS AND HAWK-LIKE BIRDS. 



sides of wings and tail white to silvery-gray, with 

 dull-gray cross-bars, denser at the end of the tail, 

 forming a deep terminal band ; bill dark ; feet 

 yellow. Female : 1 8 inches. Brown where the male 

 is blue. Resident. 



Eggs. 24, mottled with orange-brown or red- 

 brown, some of the paler ground sometimes showing 

 through; 2'0 x 1/6 inches (plate 128). 



Nest. A mere hollow on cliff- ledges inland or by 

 the sea ; in cavities in towers and steeples, and in old 

 nests of Crows and Ravens. 



Distribution. General around our coasts where 

 suitable cliffs occur ; also on inland rocks in the 

 north of England, and in suitable places throughout 

 Scotland and Ireland. Immature migrants fairly 

 common on the eastern side of British Isles from 

 autumn to spring. 



The Peregrine is the prince of Falcons, unsurpassed, 

 even if equalled, in the dash and certainty with which 

 it pursues its quarry. As becomes a bird of larger 

 and more powerful build, it preys upon heavier birds 

 than its congeners pigeons, grouse, partridges, waders, 

 ducks, and others. It may be most readily identified 

 in the breeding season. Depositing its eggs upon 

 some inaccessible ledge on the face of a steep cliff 

 either inland or by the sea, it keeps a broad look- 

 out, and long ere an intruder has come near the site 

 one or both of the birds leave the cliff with a rasping 

 ' Hek ! hek ! ' maintained as they fly out over the sea, 

 or continue to beat about between the invader and 

 the nesting-site. As the latter is approached, the 



