40 



10 



gives the second Hawk time to get up and to stoop in his turn. In what is deemed a good 

 flight this is frequently repeated, and the three birds often mount to a great height in the air. 

 When one of the Hawks seizes his prey, the other soon binds to him, as it is termed ; and, buoyant 

 from the motion of their wings, the three descend together to the ground with but little velocity. 

 The falconer must lose no time in getting hold of the Heron's neck when he is on the ground, to 

 prevent him from injuring the Hawks. It is then, and not when he is in the air, that he will 

 use his beak in his defence. Hawks have, indeed, sometimes, but very rarely, been hurt by 

 striking against the Heron's beak when stooping ; but this has been purely by accident, and not 

 (as has been said) by the Heron's presenting his beak to his pursuer as a means of defence. 

 When the Heron flies down wind, he is seldom taken, the Hawks are in great danger of being 

 lost, and, as the flight is in a straight line, it affords but little sport." 



Professor Newton (who, besides the above, gives, in the edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds ' 

 on which he is now engaged, some interesting details on falconry) remarks that the female 

 Peregrine is usually flown at Herons and Rooks, and the male, or Tiercel, is more frequently 

 flown at Partridges, and sometimes at Magpies. 



The Peregrine is extremely bold ; and Lord Lilford informs me that he knows few birds that 

 will face it, the only species he has observed to fight it with success being Nisaetus fasciatus and 

 Corvus corax. When impelled by hunger, and not unfrequently without even that strong motive 

 power, the Peregrine will visit large cities to prey on the pigeons. I have known it to frequent 

 the spires in the city of Moscow and create great devastation amongst the numerous pigeons 

 which are found in that town ; and Sir John Sebright mentions that they used to frequent London 

 in the autumn, and that a pair which frequented the cross of St. Paul's were the dread of 

 pigeon-fanciers. 



The nest of the Peregrine is most frequently placed on the ledge of a rock ; but it varies the 

 position of the nest somewhat according to circumstances. Thus, in Pomerania and the flat 

 wooded portions of North Germany it appears, as a rule, to nest in a tree ; and Mr. C. Farman 

 found the eggs of the present species in what appeared to be an old nest of the- Imperial Eagle, 

 in a large tree near Kialdery, in Bulgaria. Mr. Wiese states (J. f. O. 1855, p. 511) that he 

 found the Peregrine breeding in trees in Pomerania. The first eggs he took were in a small 

 scanty nest, not larger than that of the Crow, in a pine tree ; the second lot were in an old 

 Osprey's nest, in a pine-grove ; and the third lot were deposited in a deserted Kite's nest. 

 Professor Newton remarks that " in one locality, in Lapland, Wolley found that it bred on the 

 ground in a large marsh, and eggs from more than one nest in this situation were obtained by 

 his collectors for several years ;" and Von Middendorff states that in Livonia it nests on the 

 moors, on the borders of large ponds, in the moss, usually at the foot of some stunted thickly 

 foliaged bush, but never otherwise than on the ground. Some years ago I obtained four eggs at 

 Ija, in Northern Finland, which were in a nest placed on a large tussock in the middle of a great 

 morass. The nest of the Peregrine is generally a somewhat loose and poor structure of sticks 

 and twigs; and the eggs, usually four in number, are subject to no little variation. Judging 

 from a series in my collection, the usual (typical) egg seems to be one which, on a dull brick-red 

 ground, is closely spotted or dotted with reddish brown or darker red ; but some are blotched 

 and spotted with rich rufous on a warm reddish white or yellowish white ground ; one or two 



