PEREGRINE FALCON. 23 



only occasionally seen in winter, although formerly a regular 

 visitor. 



Regarding the habits of this bird, Audubon, who figures it in 

 his large work on the " Birds of North America" under the name 

 of Labrador Falcon (see plate 196, and descriptive letterpress in 

 vol. ii., p. 552), remarks that it occasionally alights on the stakes 

 placed on the shore as beacons by the fishermen, sitting not upright 

 but like a tern or skua on the alert for prey, and pouncing on the 

 puffins as they make their appearance at the mouth of their 

 burrows. Its nest is built of sticks, sea-weed, and mosses, and 

 is generally placed on some rocky precipice. In one instance, 

 Audubon found a number of the wings of guillemots, puffins, 

 and willow grouse lying scattered in the vicinity of the nest. 

 The cry is described as being loud, shrill, and piercing like that 

 of a peregrine. 



Adult birds of this species have the plumage uniformly of a 

 dark greyish brown with white spots, and the tarsus and toes of a 

 greyish blue. In speaking of the various Falcons to be found in 

 Iceland, Dr Von Troil, in his " Letters " on that country, states 

 that at the time he wrote they were abundant. " There are 

 three sorts," says this author; " they are purchased by the royal 

 falconers, who give fifteen dollars a-piece for the white, ten for 

 those that are darker, and seven for the grey." * 



THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 



FALCO PEREGRINUS. 



Sheabhag. 



Although subjected to an extraordinary amount of persecution, 

 this beautiful Falcon maintains a good hold throughout those dis- 

 tricts in which it has been well known for centuries, and may still 

 be called a common bird in many districts of western Scotland, 

 ranging from Burrow Head to Cape Wrath. In mountainous and 

 rocky tracts on the inner islands and mainland of Argyle, Inver- 

 ness, Ross and Sutherland shires, it is found commonly in pairs, 

 each frequenting a radius of about six or eight miles. In Islay, 

 Mull, and Jura, as well as the islands of minor extent, it is about 



* " Letters on Iceland," etc., by Uno Von Troil, D.D., London, 1780. 



