FALCO PEREGRINUS, /. F. Gmelin. 



(Peregrine Falcon.) 



Aug. 17, 1869, I saw a Peregrine rise from the cliff of Wia Island, nearSkye, 

 and attack a Crow, probably a Grey Crow, making the most splendid stoops 

 at it ; but the Crow always turned on its back and with its beak open repulsed 

 the Falcon, which, after a long battle, attacked another, and then, weary, lighted 

 upon the ground. The beauty of this treat in natural falconry cannot here be 

 described ; it charmed even the sailors of the gig in which we were being rowed. 



The Peregrine sometimes condescends to prey on small birds. One, 

 opened Jan. 5, 1864, a male, contained a Greenfinch, the legs of a common 

 Bunting, and portions of four other small birds. 



Two nests were taken in the Isle of Wight in the spring of 1859— one 

 at Culver Cliffs, one at Freshwater. In the latter were four eggs. The two old 

 birds were caught both in one day ; and the eggs sold for fourteen shillings 

 each. At Culver were two young birds, and two addled eggs, and, strange 

 to say (though quite true, as I heard it from two witnesses who agreed in 

 the story), a Partridge's egg. The two addled eggs were purchased for five 



shillings each. 



The Rev. W. S. Symonds, F.G.S., says, in the ' Records of the Rocks,' 

 p. 61:— "When King John invaded Wales, a.d. 1210, he made the Bishop 

 Robert of Shrewsbury pay a fine of 200 Hawks ; Avhich Hawks, or Peregrine 

 Falcons, the Bishop is supposed to have obtained from Stackpole rocks, near 

 Pembroke." Again, p. 343, " Giraldus Cambrensis gives an account of the 

 death of a Norwegian Hawk which was let fly at a Peregrine Falcon by 

 Henry II., and was struck dead by the Peregrine 'at the feet of the king.' 

 From that time the king sent every year, about the breeding-season, for the 

 Falcons of this country, which are produced on the sea-cliffs." Richard III. 

 endeavoured to obtain popularity by " liberal grants and allowances to the 

 masters of his hounds and hawks " (Biographical and Critical Essays, by 

 A. Hayward, Esq., Q.C., vol. ii. p. 121). 



