4 FALCONID^E. 



like casualty, it being the habit of the gyr falcon to seize 

 with one leg and drag the other along the ground in search 

 of an obstacle to arrest its course.* 

 Habitat Northern Europe. 



SPECIES 3 THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 



Falcon peregrinus. Lin. 



Faucon pellerin. Temm. 



Goshawk. Blue Hawk. Cliff Hawk. 



SMALLER in size than the gyr, the peregrine is possessed of 

 the same compactness of form, and determined courage in 

 its pursuit after the quarry, which distinguish the other. 

 Occurring in limited numbers around the precipitous head- 

 lands of our island, the peregrine is by no means a common 

 bird, and is seldom observed except during the breeding 

 season, and then within some distance of the eyrie, whence 

 both birds sally out to foray for themselves and young. At 

 one period, more plentiful in our own immediate vicinity, the 

 peregrine had four breeding stations, Bray Head, Howth, 

 Ireland's Eye, and Lambay, all of which are now deserted 

 except Lambay, where a pair occasionally nidify. 



The natural position of Ireland in the ranges of lofty pre- 

 cipices which partly fringe the coasts must have afforded a 

 secure shelter to those falcons, so eagerly sought after in the 

 feudal ages, and which we find prohibited from being exported 

 by the laws of Henry IV., 1481. " Whatsoever merchant 

 shall carry any hawk out of Ireland shall pay for every gos- 

 hawk, 13s. 4d. ; for a tiercel, 6s. Sd. ; for a falcon lOs., and 

 the poundage upon the same pain. And the person that 

 bringeth any such hawk or hawks to the king shall have a 

 reasonable reward, or else the same hawk or hawks for his 

 trouble." 



Occurring in many of the old annals of the country, the 

 hawk which we find mentioned is, doubtless, the peregrine, 

 of which Roderick, king of Connaught, presented several to 

 Henry II. ; and in Henry VIII. 's time we find a present to 

 the Marquis Dessarages, a Spanish grandee, consisting of two 

 Irish hawks and greyhounds. Presented to kings, and by 

 kings to their nobles, as we have seen this falcon, it was re- 

 served for Gerald Fitzgerald (Silken Thomas) to give the 

 peregrine a more elevated flight, when he dispatched Sir 

 Dominick Poer to the Emperor Charles V. u with twelve 



* Malcolm's " Sketches of Persia." 



