THE PEKEGRINE FALCON. 91 



proceed stealthily along the ground, for woe betide it if it 

 rises on the wing, and meets the glance of the falcon. The 

 raven himself never scoops out another eye, if he rises to 

 tempt that one ; and it is by no means improbable that, in 

 the early season, in those cold northern countries, when the 

 lambs are young and the flocks weak, and the crows and 

 ravens prowl about blinding and torturing, the jer-falcon 

 may be of considerable service to the shepherd. 



Though the distance from Iceland to those parts of Scot- 

 land and the isles where the jer-falcon is seen be about five 

 hundred miles, that is merely a morning journey for the 

 bird, from which it can easily return the same evening. Its 

 flight on long journeys is not so well ascertained, and pro- 

 bably not so swift, as that of the peregrine ; but still it is 

 certainly more than one hundred miles an hour ; so that the 

 bird can easily leave Iceland in the morning, dine and take 

 its siesta in Sutherland or Ross, and return to Iceland before 

 night. 



Like the golden eagle, the jer-falcon is found only in the 

 wilds, and therefore its habits in a state of nature are much 

 less known than those of many of the tribe. In those parts 

 of Scotland where it is most likely to be seen, it is difficult to 

 say whether you would have longer to wait for a fair day or 

 a jer-falcon. * 



* Mr. Thompson, in his Contributions to the Natural History of 

 Ireland, thus writes : " The following note appears under the head of 

 Jer-Falcon, in the MS. of the late John Teinpleton, Esq.* In 1803 

 1 received the skin of a bird of this species, which had been shot near 

 Eandalstown, (Country Antrim.)' In a letter from John P. Stewart, 

 Esq., dated Rockhill, Letterkenny, Feb. 3, 1837, it is mentioned that 

 there is in his collection a jer-talcon which was killed in a rabbit- 

 warren, close to Duiifanaghy, when on the wing. It is said to exhibit 

 the mature plumage of the mule, which sex it proved to be on dissection ; 

 as described by Teinminck, the only point of difference being that the 

 specimen in question has the bluish cere and tarsi of his young bird/* 

 (Mag. Zool. and Bot. vol. ii. p. 51.) M. 



