20 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



to their native country for the purpose of estab- 

 lishing themselves in the breeding season : yet 

 the species must be almost omnipresent, for there 

 is no nest of this falcon on the face of the earth, 

 however remote or isolated, where, in the event 

 of the death of one of the proprietors, the 

 survivor will not succeed, generally within twenty- 

 four hours, in finding a helpmate of the opposite 

 sex, even when none but the original pair had 

 up to that moment, perhaps, ever been observed 

 in the neighbourhood. 



Although the most formidable foe that any 

 bird of moderate size could encounter, yet from 

 its general partiality to an open country, the 

 grouse and ptarmigan more frequently become 

 its prey than any other species of British game ; 

 indeed, there are few sportsmen who have shot 

 much on the maritime moors of Scotland or Ire- 

 land, who could not recal to memory having 

 seen some of their wounded birds struck and 

 appropriated by the peregrine. I particularly 

 remember an instance of the kind occurring to 

 myself at the close of a grouse-shooting expedi- 

 tion, during which the fates had been decidedly 

 unpropitious. It was one of those days that a 

 sportsman abhors. The weather was sultry, and 

 the scent bad. My dogs, as tired as myself, 

 had dropped to heel, or now and then perhaps 



