NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 179 



on each side : it's tail, or train, was short in proportion to 

 the bulk of it's body : yet the wings, when closed, did not 

 extend to the end of the train. From it's large and fair 

 proportions it might be supposed to have been a female ; 

 but I was not permitted to cut open the specimen. For 

 one of the birds of prey, which are usually lean, this was 

 in high case : in it's craw were many barley-corns, which 

 probably came from the crop of the wood-pigeon, on 

 which it was feeding when shot : for voracious birds do 

 not eat grain ; but when devouring their quarry, with un- 

 distinguishing vehemence swallow bones and feathers, and 

 all matters, indiscriminately. This falcon was probably 

 driven from the mountains of North-Wales or Scotland, 

 where they are known to breed, by rigorous weather and 

 deep snows that had lately fallen. 1 



I am, &c. 



1 Professor Bell mentions his having seen a Peregrine between Empshott 

 and Selborne, and records the Hobby (Falco subbuteo] and Montagu's Harrier 

 (Circus pygargus) as having been procured in the neighbourhood (ed. " Selborne," 

 i. p. 254, note}. [R. B. S.] 



