67 



PEREGRINE. 



Falco peregrinus, LATHAM. FLEMING. 



Falco commuiiis, LATHAM. SELBY. 



Fako To cut with a bill or hook. Peregrinus A stranger or foreigner 

 a traveller from a distant country. 



THE Peregrine-Falcon has always been highly prized both 

 living and dead, in the former case for its value in falconry, 

 ca account of its courageous spirit and docility, combined 

 with confidence and fearlessness, and in the latter for its 

 handsome and fine appearance. It is a bird of first-rate powers 

 of flight, and from its frequent exertion of those powers has 

 derived its name. It has very often been seen crossing the 

 Atlantic at a great distance from land. 



The Peregrine is widely distributed, being found throughout 

 the whole of North America, and in parts of South America, 

 even as far south as the Straits of Magellan, and northwards 

 in Greenland; in Africa, at the Cape of Good Hope; in most 

 countries of Europe, particularly in Russia, Denmark, Norway, 

 Sweden, and Lapland; in Siberia and many parts of Asia; and 

 also in New Holland. The rocky cliffs of this country have 

 hitherto afforded it a comparative degree of protection, but 

 'protection' seems, exploded explosion in fact sounding the 

 knell of the aristocratic Peregrine. 



Strange to say these birds have been known to take up a 

 temporary residence on St. Paul's Cathedral, in London, any- 

 thing but 'far from the busy hum of men,' preying while 

 there on the pigeons which make it their cote, and a Pere- 

 grine has been seen to seize one in Leicester Square. 



In the county of York many of these birds have at different 

 periods been shot, some at Nutwell and Flamborough. Three 

 specimens have been procured in the neighbourhood of Fal- 

 mouth, of which W. P. Cocks, Esq. has obligingly sent me 

 information. In Sussex, the Peregrine has been occasionally 



