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are marked with dull light red on an almost pure white ground ; and one is deep uniform brick- 

 red, with two or three almost black blotches. One from Finland has one end white slightly 

 marked with rufous, and the other half of the egg is dull brick-red with rather darker markings. 

 In size they vary from Iff by lf£ inch to 2^ by Iff inch. 



The Peregrine, like many others of the birds of prey, exhibits great attachment to a place 

 it has once selected for the purpose of nidification. I have known several localities where a pair 

 of Peregrines have for long had their nest: and Professor Newton states (Ootheca Wolleyana, 

 p. 98) that a Peregrine's nest was found at Avasaxa, in Northern Finland, by the French 

 astronomer in 1736; in 1799 it was rediscovered by Skjbldebrand and Acerbi ; in 1853 Wolley 

 found it tenanted ; and I may add that several years subsequently, when I was at Tornea, I was 

 told by a young Finlander who collected with me, and who had just come from Avasaxa, 

 that the Peregrine still bred there. Like many others of the Itaptores, if one of a pair of 

 Peregrines should be destroyed the remaining bird very soon finds another mate. Referring to 

 this circumstance, Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown, in his notes on the birds of Sutherlandshire, writes as 

 follows: — "With regard to the fact repeatedly taken notice of by ornithologists, that if one of a 

 pair of Peregrines, or other birds of prey, be shot or otherwise destroyed, the remaining bird 

 easily and rapidly finds a second partner, we are inclined to believe that in no case does it do so 

 without first having a severe battle with its nearest neighbour of the same species. In the 

 spring of 1869 we knew of an authentic instance in which the Tiercel procured a second Falcon 

 within two days and a half (it may have been a much shorter time) of that on which he was 

 deprived of the first. About the same time the Falcon of another pair, from an eyrie about five 

 miles distant, went amissing; and we have every reason to believe that it had not been shot or 

 otherwise destroyed, but had supplied the place of the slain Falcon in the above Tiercel's 

 affections. In a country thinly populated by Peregrines it would probably take a longer time to 

 secure a second partner ; but where there are, say, from eight to ten eyries not very far removed 

 from one another there is nothing so very remarkable in the rapid advent of a substitute, though 

 of course, in order to obtain another partner, the Peregrine would have to conquer a rival in 

 battle." 



There are three forms of Peregrine which, though closely allied to our European Pere- 

 grine, have generally been considered specifically distinct. The first of these, Falco melanogenys, 

 Gould (P. Z. S. 1837, p. 139), which inhabits Australia, and is said to extend as far north as 

 Java, very closely resembles F. peregrinus ; and I am doubtful as to whether it is really specifi- 

 cally distinct. An adult bird in Messrs. Salvin and Godman's collection, from Brisbane, differs 

 merely in having the abdomen tinged with rusty red, and in no other respect, from European- 

 killed examples of the Peregrine. The second, Falco peregrinator, Sundevall (Physiogr. Tidskr. 

 1837, p. 177), which inhabits India, is, judging from the materials I have at hand, so closely 

 allied to the third, F. cassini, Sharpe (Ann. Nat. Hist. [4] xi. p. 221) (F. nigriceps, Cassin, partim), 

 that I am quite unable to discover any true character by which they may be distinguished ; but 

 both these appear to be fairly distinct from F. peregrinus. They are very much blacker above, 

 and have the sides of the head much darker than in F. peregrinus, the entire side of the head 

 being blackish ; and the underparts are rich deep ferruginous closely barred with black. Unfor- 

 tunately I have not a fully adult specimen of Falco peregrinator; but the one I have before me 



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