THE PEREGRINE FALCOX. 95 



Its onward flight, from the length of which it gets its 

 name, is exceedingly rapid. Montagu says, as much as 150 

 miles in the hour ; and probably that is not an over-estimate ; 

 for there is no high-flying bird, of anything approaching to 

 its size, that gets so soon beyond the range of the eye as the 

 peregrine falcon. Its pointed wings, too, enable it to turn 

 and double with much ease ; so that escape from it by any 

 bird on the wing is exceedingly difficult. The peregrine fal- 

 con strikes with the beak as well as the talons, though not so 

 generally as the smaller hawks ; and it also strikes birds as 

 well as small quadrupeds upon the ground ; but its common 

 habit is to strike them on the wing, and it often gives chase 

 at very long distances. Its proper game, the gallinse, from 

 the heaviness of their flight, and the difficulty they have in 

 turning, are soon dispatched, and the chase seldom lasts a 

 minute : but with pigeons and ducks, and other birds that 

 have much command of themselves in the air, it is generally 

 of longer duration, and has been known to extend, including 

 doublings, to nine or ten miles, performed, including the 

 turns, at the rate of about a mile in a minute, and at double 

 that velocity, or more, upon the stretches. The heron is the 

 hardest game for the falcon, because of the height at which 

 the heron flies, the consequent difficulty of the falcon getting 

 above him, and the small power which it has over any bird 

 that is not lower than itself. The heron strains hard to keep 

 the sky of its enemy, because, while it can do so, it is per- 

 fectly safe ; and when it is mastered in that, it has still the 

 resource of charging by doubling back the neck, and project- 

 ing its sharp-pointed bill upwards behind the wing. That 



passes southward and eastward on the approach of winter; and Risso 

 states that it appears in the south of Europe in autumn, and departs in 

 spring. In the British islands this bird appears to be only partially 

 migratory. Mr. Thompson observes, that in autumn and winter, he has 

 met with it in Ireland very far remote from any of its native rocks. 



M. 



