204 PEREGRINE FALCON. 



dral, fourteen miles distant, in search of food ; the 

 spire of which building, 400 feet high, they have 

 frequented certainly for the last thirty years, and 

 occasionally have bred there. An interesting account 

 of the Salisbury Falcons may be found in the Zoologist, 

 1882, p. 18. Possibly, however, it came from the Isle 

 of Wight, which in former times was famous for its 

 breed, and where some still reside.* 



The favourite food of the Falcons seems to be 

 Pigeons; they live entirely on flesh, and devour, in 

 addition to the first-named, an enormous quantity of 

 Partridges, Water-fowl, Grouse, Rooks, Plovers, and 

 many other birds. These are all carefully plucked 

 before they are eaten. 



The female is considerably larger than the male 

 bird. The general colour of the upper parts is slate 

 grey, but the head is black ; the under parts are 

 buffish white, spotted and streaked with black. The 

 nest is usually placed in a crevice in some high per- 

 pendicular cliff, or on a projecting ledge, sometimes 

 also in the top of a high fir tree ; it is made of sticks 

 or seaweed, but often scarcely any nest at all is built. 

 In Salisbury Spire the eggs have been found laid in 

 the bare guttering. 



* A pair regularly build at Alum Bay, and the fishermen tell 

 you that as soon as one is caught or shot, another pair will 

 come and build there. One of our number was fortunate 

 enough to get a sight of one of these nests. He reported of 

 it that " it was constructed only of sticks ; there were three 

 eggs, which were about twice the size of a Kestrel's, and very 

 much the same in colour. The two old birds were caught by 

 means of traps set in the nest, to get at which the fisherman 

 had to be let down the cliffs by a rope. The female measured 

 eighteen inches. The Sparrow Hawk, which it very much 

 resembles in marking, measures about twelve." 



