PEREGRINE FALCON. 29 



makes his .stoop as soon as he gets above the Heron, who evades it by a shift, 

 and thus gives the second Hawk time to get up and to stoop in his turn. 

 In what is deemed a good flight this is frequently repeated, and the three 

 birds often mount to a great height in the air. When one of the Hawks 

 seizes his prey the other soon binds to him, as it is termed, and, buoyant 

 from the motion of their wings, the three descend together to the ground 

 with but little velocity. The falconer must lose no time in getting hold 

 of the Heron's neck when he is on the ground, to prevent him from injuring 

 the Hawks. It is then, aud not when he is in the air, that he will use 

 his beak in his defence. Hawks have indeed sometimes, but very rarely, 

 been hurt by striking against the Heron's beak when stooping ; but this 

 has been purely by accident, and not (as has been said) by the Heron 

 presenting his beak to his pursuer as a means of defence. When the 

 Heron flies down wind he is seldom taken, the Hawks are in great danger 

 of being lost, and, as the flight is in a straight line, it affords but little 

 sport." 



The Peregrine has the general colour of the upper parts a bluish or slaty 

 grey, barred with a darker tint, except the head and a broad moustachial 

 patch descending from the gape, which are black ; the lower plumage is 

 white, suffused with buff, spotted on the throat and upper breast and 

 transversely barred on the remainder with blackish. Cere and legs bright 

 yellow j iris dark brown ; bill horn-colour, becoming lighter at the base. 

 The female resembles the male, but is much larger. Young birds in first 

 plumage have the upper parts ashy brown, darkest on the head, each 

 feather edged with rufous ; the underparts whitish, longitudinally streaked 

 with brownish; tail irregularly barred and tipped with white. In the 

 young birds the cere and eyelids are blue. The Peregrine Falcon presents 

 great individual diversity in the colours of its plumage, light and dark 

 forms of this bird occurring often in the same nest. 



There are no less than five tropical forms of the Peregrine, all somewhat 

 resembling each other, and all probably only subspecifically distinct from 

 it. As might be expected, they are all darker on the upper parts and more 

 rufous on the uuderparts. The South-African form has been called F. 

 minor : it has the underparts below the breast much more regularly barred, 

 but is chiefly distinguished by its smaller size, the males varying in length 

 of wing from 104 to 1H inches instead of from 12 to 13 inches, and the 

 females from 12i to 13 inches instead of from 13| to 14f inches. There 

 are two Indian forms, which do not differ much in size from the typical 

 bird : they are very nearly allied to each other ; and every intermediate 

 form is foundjaetween them. In North-west India F. atriceps occurs, with 

 the uuderparts below the breast slate-grey and very closely barred ; and 

 in East and South India we find F. periyrinator, with the underparts below 

 the breast very rufous and with only a few spots. In Australia, Sumatra, 



