366 PEREGRINE FALCON. 



scarce in South Carolina, and is there seen only along the large rivers, 

 such as the Santee, and in winter. 



Dr TowNSEND saw it on the Rocky Mountains, and I found it in 

 the Texas late in April ; but I have nowhere seen it so abundant as 

 along the high rocky shores of Labrador and Newfoundland, where I 

 procured several adult individuals of both sexes, as well as some eggs 

 and young. The nests were placed on the shelves of rocks, a few feet 

 from the top, and were flat and rudely constructed of sticks and moss. 

 In some were found four eggs, in others only two, and in one five. In 

 one nest only a single young bird was found. The eggs vary consi- 

 derably in colour and size, which I think is owing to a difference of 

 age in the females, the eggs of young birds being smaller. The ave- 

 rage length of four was 2 inches, their breadth If. They are some- 

 what rounded, though larger at one end than the other ; their general 

 and most common coloxu' is a reddish or rusty yellowish-brown, spotted 

 and confusedly marked with darker tints of the same, here and there 

 intermixed with lighter. The young are at first thickly covered with 

 soft white down. They take food almost immediately after being removed 

 from the nest. Remains of Ducks, Willow Grous, and young Gulls 

 were found about the nests, which are easily discovered by the excre- 

 ments on the rocks. In several instances, we found these Falcons 

 breeding on the same ledge with Cormorants, Phalacrocorax Carbo. 



Although it has been supposed that our Great-footed Falcon is dif- 

 ferent from the Peregrine Falcon of Europe, I am perfectly convinced 

 of its being the same bird. Since my first acquaintance with this spe- 

 cies I have observed nothing in its habits, form, or markings on one 

 continent that differs from what is found on the other. 



On the 15th of July 1833, I saw, in Labrador, a Peregrine Falcon 

 chase a Raven with great fury, and follow it to its very nest, having 

 alighted on which, however, the Raven defended herself and her young. 

 The farther north we advanced the more abxmdant did we find this 

 bird, whereas the Common Crow gradually became scarcer, so that at 

 last it was hardly more numerous than the Peregrine. In the Floridas, 

 I once saw a Peregrine Falcon chase a White-headed Eagle, and drive 

 it away with ease, until it disappeared in the woods. 



The following measurements are those of two adult individuals : — 

 Male. Length to end of tail 17^ inches, to end of wings 17, to end 

 of claws 17 4 ; extent of wings 39. 



