Birds. 2639 



Catalogue of Birds taken in Pembrokeshire, with Observations on 

 their Habits, Manners, 8fc. By Mr. James Tracy.* 



Gyr Falcon. The specimen from which Mr. Yarrell made the 

 drawing, in his excellent work on British Birds, was killed on a war- 

 ren on the estate of the Earl of Cawdor, was set up by me, and after- 

 wards given by the Earl to the Zoological Society. It had been 

 observed by my father (his lordship's keeper) for eight or ten days, 

 and had almost on each day killed and partly devoured a cock phea- 

 sant. It was very shy, always perched on the highest rocky eminences, 

 and therefore difficult to get at; but was accidentally come on, and 

 shot in the act of rising from a cock pheasant it had recently killed. 



Peregrine Falcon. Tolerably common on this coast, from Caldy 

 Island round westward to St. David's Head, breeding in the most in- 

 accessible parts of the cliff; lays four eggs, sometimes five, and in 

 one instance I observed six young. They make no nest, but lay their 

 egg in a cavity of the rock where a little loose clayey earth has been 

 deposited : sometimes in the old nest of the raven, or carrion crow, — 

 but I never saw a nest without a little earth in it : they fix upon the 

 situation early in March, and lay about the first week in April. Both 

 male and female sit in turn on the eggs. I have known an instance 

 where the male hatched and reared the young ones when the female 

 had been killed; and also, when the male had been shot, the female 

 has continued the work of incubation. When they have young ones, 

 they are not to be deterred from their nests, nor will they — even if 

 fired upon — desert their offspring. On one occasion I remember my 

 father and myself firing at a pair of these birds, and the female re- 

 turned to the nest almost immediately : we repeated this three times 

 before we succeeded in getting her. In almost every instance where 

 I observed a nest of this fine bird, the following birds have had nests 

 in the immediate vicinity, — that is, within 100 or 150 yards : the 

 guillemot and razorbill in immense numbers, within a few feet; puf- 

 fins; the kestrel, raven, carrion crow, jackdaw, red-legged crow, 

 great black-backed gull, one nest ; lesser black -backed gull, several 

 nests ; herring gull, common ; kittiwakes, in thousands ; common and 

 green cormorants, swifts and sand martins : and yet none of them 

 showed any signs of alarm at the approach of so formidable a foe. I 

 do not recollect a nest where the herring gulls, guillemots, razorbills 



* Naturalist and Taxidermist, Pembroke. 



