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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 



upon the wing. My shouts and rapid advance pre- 

 vented it from securing its prey. The issue of this 

 attempt, however, did not deter the Falcon from watch- 

 ing our subsequent movements ; another opportunity 

 soon offering, it again gave chase, and struck down 

 two birds by two rapidly repeated blows, one of which 

 it secured and bore off in triumph." The flight of 

 this Falcon when pursuing its quarry is astonishingly 

 rapid. Montagu has reckoned it at one hundred and 

 fifty miles an hour ; and Colonel Thornton, an expert 

 falconer, estimated the flight of one in pursuit of a 

 snipe to have been nine miles in eleven minutes, with- 

 out including the frequent turnings. Audubon, in his 

 " Birds of America," states that he has seen this Fal- 

 con come at the report of a gun, and carry off a teal 

 not thirty steps distant from the sportsman who had 

 killed it, " with a daring assurance as surprising as 

 unexpected." 



This singular aptitude in the wild bird to join men 



