OCCASIONAL NOTES. 19 



up four different kinds of birds killed by them, viz., Wood Pigeon, Moor- 

 hen, Partridge, aud Wild Duck, the last so fresh that I took it home and 

 dined off it ; I might possibly have disturbed her. I used then to go up 

 to the eight doors of the Cathedral (i. e., where the spire springs from the 

 tower, the tower being 207 feet and spire 193), and there I used to find 

 various remains left by the Falcons, showing that it was a favourite resort 

 of theirs. Amongst other things I picked up there was a Snipe's leg. On 

 one occasion, when I was up at the eight doors, a fine Falcon (hen bird) 

 settled on the fretwork just above my head, some sixty feet or more, and 

 she did not seem to take the least notice of me. I could see every 

 feather on her, and she was in good adult plumage. This must have been 

 about 1867 — 1868, so it certainly was not the "Queen of Sheba" [a trained 

 hawk that was lost and supposed to have taken up her quarters on the spire]. 

 About 1864 or 1865, I one day noticed no less than four Peregrines, all 

 soaring round the spire at the same time, one of wbich perched on the knob 

 of the cross above the weathercock. This certainly looked like the old ones 

 with their young, but unfortunately I cannot remember the date or time of 

 year, though I feel sure it was in the late summer or early autumn. In 

 1866 the spire was restored, and, after returning from a six weeks' outing, 

 I heard that one of the workmen had shot one of the " big hawks." I 

 immediately inquired, and found the foreman had it, and valued it as 

 a memento of his work at the Cathedral. I went to him, and, after seeing 

 my birds, he let me have it for a consideration. It was villanously stuffed. 

 I sent it up to Ward, of Vere Street, to be redone. Two days after I retnrned 

 I was working in my garden in the Close, when I heard a noise, as I 

 thought, of a plank thrown down on the roof of the Cathedral. But my 

 man, who was with me, said " That's the other big hawk shot ; I know the 

 man was looking out for it." The next night but one the man brought it 

 down to me. It was the Falcon, a fine adult female, evidently having 

 previously been caught in a gin, her upper mandible being broken, and one 

 toe of the left foot being wanting. He had taken it round the town to sell 

 it, and at last, hearing that the foreman had given me the other, he brought 

 it to me. He said there were two others there, and he would get them for 

 me. These I saved, however, telling him I knew the Dean would not like 

 it, and would send away any man who killed them. The Falcon was in the 

 middle of the autumn moult, and therefore rather ragged in plumage; the 

 Tiercel, killed about a month before, was in adult plumage, and had finished 

 moulting. Since that date (1866) I have on and off always seen the Peregrines 

 round the spire, especially in tbe winter, when they frequently roost there, our 

 water-meadows affording them fine wintering grounds. About 1S72 or 1873 

 I had a fine view of a pair flying about some fine elms iu a park in front of 

 the vicarage. I watched them for half an hour or so ; at last the Tiercel 

 flew off to the Clarendon Woods, and, giving a peculiar cry, the Falcon who 



