THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 39 



eyries have been annually in requisition for more than thirty 

 years, to supply different sportsmen, but chiefly my friend, John 

 Sinclaire, Esq., with falcons for the chase.* The best time to 

 secure the young, is just before they essay then- wings, but they 

 are sometimes taken at an earlier period, when arrayed in a cos- 

 tume of pure white down. They are generally three in number, 

 but, in a few instances, four have been obtained ; in which case, 

 one is generally much smaller than the others. An exception to 

 this occurred at Salagh Braes, in 1838, when all four were of 

 similar size ; and, what is most unusual, of the same sex, being 

 females. Three females and one male were, in another instance, 

 the produce of a nest ; but the two sexes are, upon the whole, 

 considered to be about equal in number, — the females, perhaps, 

 rather preponderating. If either an old male or female be killed 

 in the breeding season, (not an uncommon circumstance,) another 

 mate is found within a very few days ; so that the eyries, notwith- 

 standing such casualties, are sure to turn out their complement 

 of young. An addled egg is not unfrequently brought from the 

 nest with the young birds, when of a proper age to be reared ; 

 from which it would appear, that there is no desire on the part of 

 of the parent birds to get rid of it. Mr. Sinclaire states, that on 

 going to obtain these hawks, — which is done by a person sus- 

 pended from the summit of the cliff by a rope, — he has often 

 seen the tercel, or male bird, circling at a great height in the air, 

 with prey for the eyrie, while the female, loudly screaming, kept 

 flying about the vicinity of the nest. The food was then dropped 

 by the tercel, and as it fell through the air was seized by his 

 partner, who bore it off to the young. In captivity, when grow- 

 ing, they eat twice or thrice as much as after they have attained 

 full size, which they do very soon. The greatest regularity in 



1626, directed that his third son, Bryan O'Flahertie, should have the Cleggan, an 

 extensive tract in the barony of Balinahiuch ' excepting onelie the Aiery of hawks 

 upon Barnanoran,' reserved for his eldest son, Morogh na Mart." In High 

 Island, also, it is remarked, that "yearlie an ayrie of hawkes is found," p. 115. 



* One of these localities in Ballynascreen, county of Londonderry, frequented 

 from time immemorial by the peregrine falcon, is called Craig -na-shoke, or rock of 

 the hawks. 



