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their nests (! nets). It breeds in April and May. Its young are ready to fly in the middle of 

 June. Its nests, as those of all other Falcons, are built in unfrequented places ; therefore the 

 author of the account from Severn River could not ascertain how many eggs it lays ; however, 

 the Indians told him it commonly laid two. It never migrates, and weighs 2 J pounds; its 

 length is 22 inches, its breadth 3 feet." 



From this it will be seen that it is most difficult to determine with any degree of certainty 

 what the species is to which Forster refers. The yellow iris would point to an immature 

 Goshawk ; but that bird has not blue legs, and, doubtless, Forster would not have mistaken the 

 Goshawk for the Saker. On the whole the probability is that the bird in question really was a 

 Jer Falcon ; but there is no certainty at all on the subject, and I think that on the whole the 

 best plan to follow is to disregard Forster's reference altogether, especially as the true Saker 

 Falcon, which is the Sacre of Brisson, was named Falco sacer by Gmelin in 1788, sixteen years 

 subsequently to when Forster mistook the bird obtained by him, whatever it was, for Brisson's 

 Sacre, a species which does not occur in North America. 



Of the habits of this Falcon but little is on record. It frequents, as above stated, rocky 

 and wooded districts, and feeds on squirrels, small mammals, and birds, especially Ptarmigan 

 &c. It is a swift, powerful bird, very strong on the wing, and is the most esteemed amongst the 

 Falcons employed in falconry. Buffon, who remarks that the Norwegian bird differs from the 

 Iceland species, says that it is held in greater esteem by the falconers than F. islandus, being 

 more couragous, active, and docile. Mr. Wolley, the well-known oologist, appears to be the 

 first naturalist who has given full details of the nidification of the present species from personal 

 observation ; and Professor Newton has published the fullest particulars relative to the taking 

 of many nests by Mr. Wolley and his collectors in the ' Ootheca Wolleyana,' to which I may 

 refer such of my readers as wish for further details than those I glean from Mr. Wolley's 

 notes. This gentleman describes (Ooth. Woll. p. 88) the taking of a nest of the Jer Falcon by 

 himself as follows : — " We had not long left the track on the river when a Falcon flew up from 

 the rock where the nest was supposed to be, and soon afterwards, turning back, settled on the 

 trunk of a dead tree, once or twice uttering a cry. I now knew there was a nest, and in a few 

 minutes more I saw it, looking very large, and with a black space about it, as though it were in 

 the mouth of a little cave in the face of the rock. This was a joyful moment ; but not so much 

 so as when the hen bird flew off with somewhat cramped wings, and settled on a little stump 

 some thirty yards from the nest. I would not let Ludwig shoot. We were ascending the hill, 

 and might be fifty yards off when she left the nest. I took off my shoes, though there was deep 

 snow everywhere, except just on the face of the rock, and first tried it from above; but it seemed 

 scarcely practicable. Then I went below ; and with the Lapp to support my feet, and Ludwig to 

 give me additional help with a pole, I managed to climb up. Just at the last bit I had to rest some 

 time. Then I drew myself up, and saw four eggs to my right hand, looking small in the middle 

 of a large nest. Again I waited to get steady for the final reach. I had only a bit of stone to 

 stand upon not bigger than a walnut, and frozen to the surface of the ledge, which sloped 

 outwards. I put two of the eggs into my cap, and two into my pocket, and cautiously with- 

 drew. The nest appeared to have been quite freshly made, and therefore by the bird herself. 

 The sticks were thick, certainly more so than those used by Ravens or Buzzards, and, unlike the 



