BIRD-LIFE UPON THE CLIFFS. 215 



time immemorial has bred on these cliffs too, or did 

 so up to quite recent years. We ourselves saw a 

 pair there in 1895. Our experience of the Pere- 

 grine in Devonshire is confined to the South 

 Hams, and there are certainly several nests be- 

 tween Tor Bay and the Start. We heard this 

 year that the young are obtained almost every 

 season in the Bolt Head district. One of our 

 most charming experiences with the Peregrine 

 Falcon occurred during the summer of 1898, when 

 we stumbled quite accidentally upon a nest, the 

 whereabouts of which we will not specify beyond 

 saying that it is situated on a fine range of cliffs 

 between Berry Head and Slapton. It was on the 

 4th of July, whilst watching the doings of the 

 Herring Gulls as we lay concealed upon the face of 

 the cliffs, that we suddenly caught sight of a brood 

 of Peregrines on the face of the rock not fifty 

 yards away. With a powerful binocular we could 

 discern the markings on every feather equally as 

 well as if we had held the birds in our hands. 

 For quite an hour we watched their gambols on 

 the cliffs, our presence quite unsuspected. There 

 were four young birds, quite an exceptional brood, 

 and they had evidently just left the nesting place 



