PEREGRINE FALCON. 27 



the Guillemots and Puffins were disporting on the sea at the base of 

 the cliff, looking for all the world like small animated air-bubbles or specks 

 of foam, whilst the air around was full of Gannets sailing dreamily about, 

 their snow-white plumage glistening in the noonday sun, and their grating 

 cries, harsh though they were, lending a wild charm to the scene around. 

 Far up in the air above the two old Peregrines were sailing in ever widening 

 circles, the female bird, easily distinguishable by her superiority in size, 

 venturing the closest, sometimes coming so near as to enable me to catch 

 the sparkle of her bright black eye and hear the rustle of her pinions. The 

 male bird was much more wary, and kept at a respectful distance, whilst 

 both birds incessantly uttered their sharp chattering cry of alarm at the 

 threatened danger to their offspring. The nest was on a narrow ledge of 

 the rock, just affording sufficient standing-room, and was a poorly made 

 crude structure. It consisted for the greater part of a few bits of vegetation, 

 placed there by chance alone, carelessly strewed in a little hollow. Quan- 

 tities of feathers, a few pellets, and the bones and feet of various birds 

 strewed the vicinity of the nest, amongst them being the legs and feet of a 

 Puffin just recently conveyed there. Of course, had the nest only contained 

 eggs, the feathers and other refuse would probably have been absent. It 

 contained a single young bird in dirty white down, that allowed me to 

 examine it minutely without the least show of resistance. Scattered 

 round and in the nest were numerous pellets, formed of fur and feathers 

 and small bones, the refuse of the bird's food, which is thus ejected." 



Harvie-Brown and I found the Peregrine breeding on the steep clay 

 banks of the river Petchora in North-east Russia, at Stanavialachta. On 

 the 27th of June, on the grassy top of a mound halfway down the mud-cliffs 

 overlooking this great river, and within sight of the Arctic Ocean, we came 

 upon the nest. It contained four eggs, one of which was much lighter in 

 colour than the others. This mound had probably been used for some 

 years as a nesting-place by the Falcons, since the grass was much greener 

 upon it than upon the surrounding places. A little way off there rose 

 another mound just similar to it : and this was apparently the Falcon's 

 dining-table ; for scattered all about it were feathers of Grouse, of Long- 

 tailed Duck, and of divers small birds. While we remained near the 

 nest the two Falcons hovered round, uttering sharp cries ; when we 

 approached nearer still they redoubled their screams, hovered over us, 

 closed their wings, and descended perpendicularly till within a few yards 

 of our heads. A mile up the river we found a second nest upon an 

 exactly similar green-topped mound. This nest contained three eggs; and 

 the behaviour of the birds as we neared it was the same as that of the 

 previous parf. I also met with the Peregrine breeding on the tundra on 

 the steep mud cliffs on the banks of the Yenesay. In lat. 69^ I spent 

 the night of the 13th-14th of July on shore, shooting. I had no sooner 



