The Zoologist — June, 1867. 791 



stretched her pinions-to their full extent, then gracefully closed them and commenced 

 preening her wing-fealhers : her toilet heing arranged she turned round and popped 

 into a small hole behind her in a most undignified uiauner, bobbing her head and 

 waddling in after the manner of a pigeon entering a dovecote. I felt confident this 

 must be the nest, but walking back again to the base of the rock, struck with my stick, 

 and out she flew, screaming wildly and hovering about thirty feet over my head : the 

 tiercel again joined her, and both of them displayed great indignation at my intrusion, 

 circling round my head and uttering sharp cries, the tiercel, however, always keeping 

 at a far greater distance than the female, which 1 could have shot with the greatest 

 ease. To get at the nest was a matter of some difficulty : the precipice, a straight up 

 and down slippery trap rock, was at least a hundred and fifty feet high, and the nest 

 about fifty feet from the bottom : our best plan was to let a rope over until it touched 

 the ground, and then with its aid climb up to the nest, but to accomplish this required 

 more rope than we had with us, so we returned to Stirling. Sunday intervened, but 

 the 29ih of April saw us out again with an extra hundred feet of rope: letting the 

 rope over, attaching it to a post at the top, constructing a rough ladder to ascend by, 

 took us some hours, and it was six in the evening when my companion got up and 

 took four eggs out of the hole : the eggs were lying on the bare rock, not a bit of 

 material of any kind underneath them : during the lime my companion was ascending 

 the rope the female bird made most vicious attempts to strike him, sometimes coming 

 within five or six feet of his head. I must mention what occurred when my com- 

 panion was within ten feet of the nest: a pair of wild ducks, going to their low- 

 land feeding-ground, came down the glen; the tiercel, as they passed the cliff, dashed 

 off in pursuit, singling out the mallard, who with loud quackings attempted to rise 

 above the hawk; the sight seemed too much for the female falcon; for a few moments 

 she forgot her maternal instincts and joined her partner iu the chase ; making one dash 

 at the mallard, which he eluded, she returned again to hover over our heads: a thick 

 fog rolling up the glen shut out the tiercel from my view, and I could not see whether 

 he killed his quarry or not, but I expect he did, as the ground at the base of the pre- 

 cipice was strewn here and there wiih grouse and duck bones and feathers. After 

 withdrawing the rope, the falcon re-entered the hole, and as long as we were there did 

 not leave it,"aud as it was getting dark I fancy she would remain seated in the nesting- 

 hole till next morning. The eggs were deeply sat on, and gave me some trouble in 

 emptying. These falcons will doubtless raise a second brood, unless some keeper gets 

 his eye on them. I was so interested in their magnificent flight, courage and beauty 

 of plumage and shape, that, easily as I could have done it, I refrained from doing so, 

 hoping that they will hatch their second clutch of eggs and rear their brood in safety. 

 — H. W. Feilden; Fleetwood School of Musketry, May 6, 1§67. 



Erratum.— Zoo\. S. S.702, 18th and 19th lines, for " In Aloa Craig, just above the 

 village of Aloa," read " In Alva Craig, just above the village of Alva."-//. W. F. 



Peregrine Falcon breeding at Beachy Eead.—k pair breed every year in a hole in 

 the cliff, but unfortunately the young are always taken, as they were last year.— John 

 Button ; 51 Terminus Road, Eastbourne, April 20, 1867. 



Little Owl near Cambridge.-K very fine little owl (Noclua passerina) has been shot 

 near here lately. I saw two gadwalls to-day, shot the day before yesterday.— William 

 Farren; 10, Rose Crescent, Cambridge, March 22, 1867. 



