58 FALCONTD^. 



So bold as well as rapid is the Peregrine Falcon, that it 

 has frequently interfered and robbed the sportsman of his 

 game in the manner described under the article "Golden 

 Eagle," of which instances are related by Selby and others. 

 But these daring birds are not always successful. 



The Peregrine Falcon most generally has its nest in high 

 and inaccessible cliffs, usually near the sea or lakes ; but in 

 one locality, in Lapland, Wolley found that it bred on the 

 ground in a large marsh, and eggs from more than one nest 

 in this situation were obtained by his collectors for several 

 years.* Mr. Farman mentions its having its nest in a tree in 

 Bulgaria ; and that is its habit in Java, according to Professor 

 Schlegel ; instances also are known of church towers being 

 occupied. The eggs are commonly four in number, and except 

 that they are ordinarily of a much deeper colour, resemble 

 those of the last species. Some are uniformly suffused with 

 a brick-red, but a close freckling of dull crimson or deep 

 orange-brown, with spots of a darker shade, is more pre- 

 valent. Occasionally a purplish hue is very perceptible, and 

 sometimes the colouring matter is irregularly collected into 

 large blotches, or only distributed at one end, leaving the 

 rest of the surface with the pale yellowish-white ground ex- 

 posed. They vary much in shape and size, measuring from 

 2*2 to 1-77 by 1*74 to 1*48 in. A nest in Sutherland, de- 

 scribed by Wolley, was on a little platform, some four feet 

 square, in a comparatively low rock with a good deal of 

 vegetation, including ivy, upon it. The bare place for the 

 nest was about eighteen inches across, and thereon were col- 

 lected some little fragments of sticks and a multitude of 

 birds' bones, with a few bones of sheep, probably brought to 

 construct the nest with, and also many little bits of stone, 



* The persistency with which many birds-of-prey continue, during a long 

 period of years, to use one spot for breeding is tolerably well known ; but a very 

 remarkable instance is recorded in the ' Ootheca Wolleyana ' (p. 98). A Falcon's 

 nest on a hill called Avasaxa in Finland is mentioned by the French astronomer 

 Maupertuis, as having been observed by him in the year 1736. In 1799 it was 

 rediscovered by Skjoldebrand and Acerbi. In 1853 Wolley found it tenanted, 

 and, by examining the remains of a young bird lying in or near the nest, proved 

 that it belonged to this species. 



