Notes on Birds. By Dr Charles Stuart. ->4o 



small birds and Larks; and was for a time quite tame. He began to relish 

 his liberty rather too much, and finally flew away altogether. Four years 

 afterwards, my friend was at Fast Castle or neighbourhood, when a Pere- 

 grine flew so close past his ear as to startle him. As he wished a specimen 

 for preservation, the following evening he went down with his gun, think- 

 ing it was possible that he might get a shot at the bird, and strange to say, 

 it again came quite close within shot, and he tired. The Peregrine how- 

 ever, did not show immediate signs of being injured, flying about two 

 hundred yards out to sea, and then dropped. It was not dead however, 

 for on the retriever swimming out to pick it up, the bird attacked the dog 

 so fiercely that he turned tail. My friend now saw that he would lose his 

 prize, so stripping off his clothes he swain out a considerable distance. 

 The dog had never before seen his master in the water, and thinking him 

 in difficulties, swam out to his assistance, and jumped on his back, which 

 sent him under water. Throwing the dog from him it seized him by the 

 arm, and my friend with one arm held in limbo by the dog, and swimming 

 with the other, reached terra firma in a nearly drowned condition. After 

 recovering himself, he saw his bird floating quite dead, in a perfectly 

 calm sea, and again sent the dog for it, who now brought it ashore un- 

 injured. Most singular to relate, upon examining the specimen, it turned 

 out to be the very bird that he himself had reared, with the bit of coloured 

 leather and ring round his leg, which with his own hand he had fastened 

 four years before. To keep them in health, they require to be fed with 

 both fnr and feather ; and bring up pellets of undigested matters like 

 owls, from their digestive organs. 



At Dowlaw there is a piece of water used as a mill pond. Wild Ducks 

 and other aquatic birds frequent this place in winter. One day my friend 

 saw some wild ducks on the water, within shot, and went to the house for 

 his gun. On coming out the ducks were still there, but out of shot, and 

 would not rise from some cause or other, even when he clapped his hands. 

 Considering this conduct very unusual on their part, he very speedily 

 discovered the cause ; overhead high in the air he descried two Peregrines 

 circling, and the ducks seeing their enemy, declined to give the hawks a 

 chance. Firing his gun, they rose and flew towards the moor, upon which 

 one of the Peregrines came down like a thunderbolt, and felled a drake to 

 the ground. My friend immediately gave chase, but the hawk picked up 

 the drake and flew a considerable distance, but was at length compelled to 

 drop the bird from its weight. The drake was now picked up with a bit 

 picked out of its breast. 



The Peregrine is, next to the Hoyal Eagle, the noblest of our birds of 

 prey ; and it is a great pity that it should be molested at its breeding places. 



When at Canty Bay near North Berwick, with the Club a few years 

 ago, the man who supplied us with boats to take the party to the Bass, 

 showed me a beautiful pair of these birds, which had been bred on the 

 rock. He asked £4 for them, and being strong healthy birds, they were 

 well worth the price to anyone wishing to train them to hawk. It was 

 in the month of July, and thev were well fledged, and flvinsr about in an 



