Falcons and Homing Pigeons 369 



with, and the prey is devoured near the scene of capture. 

 That a Peregrine Falcon is quite able to carry a much 

 heavier weight than a pigeon, should occasion arise, is of 

 course well known. Gray, in his Birds of the West of Scotland, 

 refers to a Blackcock carried to the Bass Rock, from a 

 probable distance of about three miles ; and I have myself 

 seen a male arrive at an eyrie bearing an adult and unplucked 

 Grouse in his talons. 



It has been supposed that the chief reason why a mountain 

 range offers an obstacle so seldom surmounted by voyageur 

 pigeons is that the birds are unable to find their way, by 

 sight, over so elevated a tract. To some extent this may be 

 true, but the danger of capture by predatory birds should at 

 least be taken into account. In this country the number of 

 birds of prey is comparatively small, yet we see how heavy 

 is the toll they take. Elsewhere, the risk must be pro- 

 portionately greater ; and falcons, though undoubtedly the 

 most dangerous, are by no means the only foes to be 

 reckoned with. Large and heavy birds, like Eagles, move 

 through the air at a much greater pace than their apparently 

 slow wing-motion might suggest ; and an Eagle in the sky 

 would probably experience not much more difficulty in 

 capturing a pigeon passing beneath him, than he does in 

 taking the almost equally fast-flying grouse. I have seen 

 a Wood-Pigeon in an Eagle's nest ; nor are all other birds 

 to be disregarded. A Rook has been seen to pursue and 

 capture a Wood-Pigeon upon the wing, when the latter had 

 become somewhat enfeebled through stress of hard weather, 

 and when the former's appetite had, from the same cause, 

 been more than usually whetted. It has never been my 

 good fortune to see a Raven in pursuit of winged prey ; but 

 it is very well known that they do, at least occasionally, 

 resort to that method of supplying their wants. And from 

 what I have seen of their wing power, when driving a 

 falcon, or a rival, from the neighbourhood of their nest, I 

 have no hesitation in believing that a hungry Raven, intent 

 upon a meal, and starting with all the advantages of position, 

 would, to say the least of it, be a foe to be seriously 

 reckoned with even by such an aerial expert as a homing 



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