1907-190S.] British Birds of Prey. 23 



The Peregeine. 



The peregrine falcon is by far the noblest and most dash- 

 ing of our British birds of prey. He is a bold and pitiless 

 marauder, and Highland lairds will never know what rental 

 their estates will produce so long as this merciless tyrant 

 among grouse life is allowed to harbour. Endless discussion 

 has from time to time taken place in the columns of sporting 

 and other newspapers between falconers, naturalists, sports- 

 men, and keepers, as to how a falcon strikes its prey. A 

 recent correspondence in ' The Scotsman ' on this subject must 

 be fresh in the minds of every one. Like most discussions of 

 a similar nature, however, it ended where it began. It is, I 

 think, a subject for a Society such as this to investigate. At 

 what period hawking was first practised is involved in much 

 obscurity. Strutt traces it back to the fourth century. How 

 falcons kill their prey has to my mind not yet been satisfac- 

 torily settled. Falconers determinedly adhere to the theory, 

 it is with their talons. Major Morant, after describing birds 

 killed in the air by wild hawks, says, " The grand sudden 

 death of these birds is certainly very different to the descrip- 

 tions one reads of the way tame hawks take herons. After 

 getting above them, they seem to settle on their backs (' bind- 

 ing ' is, I believe, the correct term), and they descend to the 

 earth together, scratching and fighting like a bagful of cats." 



Mr Knox, in his charming book, ' Game Birds and Wild- 

 fowl,' says, " It is because the breast-bone of the hawk is 

 protected by such strong pectoral muscles that the concussion 

 which deprives its victim of life can have no injurious effect 

 upon the author of the momentum which causes the injury." 

 This is no doubt sometimes the case, and I believe the hawk 

 fears concussion with the bird he pursues no more than a 

 strong boy fears charging another at football. 



Mr Adam, in his delightful communication at last meeting, 

 said the staple food of the peregrine, on that particular island 

 of the Outer Hebrides of which he spoke, is the puffin. Un- 

 fortunately he could not tell us how they were captured. 

 Though I have not seen it myself, I have it on the authority 

 of my friend Mr Campbell, who witnessed a gull struck down 



