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THE PEREGRINE FALCON (Falco peregrinus). 



This, also called the Blue Falcon (the hen harrier being the 

 blue hawk), is exceedingly destructive to winged game, and on 

 that account, in spite of tne exertions of falconers, it will 

 always be condemned to death by gamekeepers in this country. 

 The adult female is about eighteen inches in length, and the 

 male about fifteen. The colours are : Beak blue, approaching 

 to black at the point ; cere and eyelids yellow; iris dark brown ; 

 top of the head and back of the neck nearly black, of which 

 colour there is also a spot beneath the eye ; back bluish slate 

 or ash colour, the shade becoming lighter as the bird in- 

 creases in age ; all the upper feathers of the body barred with 

 a darker shade of the same colour; primaries brown black, 

 with the inner web spotted and barred with reddish white; 

 throat white, streaked longitudinally with dark brown; 

 breast pale reddish white with transverse bars of the same 

 colour as the throat; under surface of the tail-feathers and 

 coverts barred with dark brown and greyish white; legs and 

 toes yellow, claws black. The young birds have the head 

 and upper surface of the body of a brownish ash colour, the 

 edge of each feather having a reddish tinge. The peregrine 

 falcon builds on high rocks, being extremely rare in England, 

 and not very often met with in the present day in Scotland. 

 The eggs are from two to four in number, two inches long 

 by one inch and eight lines broad, mottled with pale reddish 

 brown. During the breeding season these falcons confine 

 their attacks chiefly to aquatic birds, which are found close 

 to their nests, but at other times of the year they destroy 

 large quantities of grouse and partridges. These are gene- 

 rally pursued and struck on the wing, but Mr. Colquhoun gives 

 an instance which came under his own observation, in which a 

 blue falcon pursued a grouse, put up by him, into the heather, 

 when, he says, " it immediately alighted, searched the heather 

 for a minute, and presently the grouse fluttered out before 

 it. I saw the chase for about ten yards, when they ran 

 behind a hillock, and on my going up to the place, the falcon 

 rose, and there lay the grouse decapitated." Such an act is, 

 however, an exception to the general habit of the bird, and 

 must not be relied on by the trapper. 



