FALCO PEREGRINE'S. 105 



female was so shy that, though I long remained concealed near the nest, she never afforded me a shot, and I 

 was ohliged to return home without her. I was surprised to find another male at the same nest when I 

 revisited the spot at the end of the month, and procured both him and his mate with a double shot." 



Schlegel affirms that the Peregrine has bred in Sumatra; and Swinhoe found it nesting on the cliffs of 

 North rock, in the province of Shantung, North China, and remarks that it appears to be a resident species 

 down the whole length of the Chinese coast, young birds in their down having been brought to him at Amoy. 

 No further testimony beyond that of these three writers is forthcoming of its breeding in the south-east of 

 Asia or in the Indian empire southward of the Himalayas. Dr. Adams is supposed to have found its nest on 

 the banks of the Indus ; but the occurrence is mentioned with doubt, as to the correct identification of the 

 bird, by both Jerdon and Hume ; and the latter does not include it in his list in ' Nests and Eggs/ In more 

 northerly latitudes it usually chooses an inaccessible cliff on which to build and rear its young. There, on 

 some ledge which it deems secure from the attack of man, it constructs a nest of sticks, often mingled with 

 the bones of its quarry, which, collecting year after year, have at last become part and parcel of the structure. 

 The eggs are either three or four in number, and vary both in size and markings, these characters depending 

 on the age of the bird. In Mr. Hewitson's plate (vol. i. of his ' British Birds' 1 Eggs ') are two examples : the 

 first laid by an old bird, and measuring 2-13 by V7 inch ; the second by a younger bird, not exceeding 1-92 

 bv 1"55. In the larger of the two the general colour is reddish white, closely freckled, except at the small 

 end, with brick-red, and blotched openly over that with reddish brown, the markings on the smaller half being 

 the largest. The second egg is not so decided in its markings, is of a paler ground, covered with a stippled 

 wash of pale reddish, in which there are a few darker clouds and several openly distributed large blotches 

 round the centre. 



