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very pleasant and delighful to the beholder. I have known, in a clear day and little wind 

 stirring, that both the Saker and Kite have soared so high that the sharpest eye could not 

 discern them ; yet hath the Saker in the encounter conquered the Kite, and I have seen her 

 come tumbling down to the ground with a strange precipitancy." 



The Saker appears to nest chiefly in trees and not in the rocks. I have observed it when 

 travelling in Bulgaria, but have never had an opportunity of taking its nest ; but Mr. W. H. 

 Simpson and Mr. Farman, who have found it breeding there, have published excellent accounts 

 of its nesting-habits. The former gentleman writes (Ibis, 1SG0, p. 377): — "On the evening of 

 the 29th [April] another fortunate discovery was made by the same party, and, this time, of the 

 nest of a bird whose eggs, it is believed, were almost unknown previously in authentic cabinets. 

 We were strolling on a low flat island in the Danube, the edge of which is well covered with tall 

 poplars and other trees. Opposite this belt of trees, and across the river, the Turkish shore rises 

 pretty steeply to a level with the plateau of the Dobrudsha, whilst behind, towards the mainland 

 of Wallachia, there stretches an immense tract of low ground, partly swamp, partly forest, and 

 partly open plain. A nest of Milviis ater had occupied us for a short time; but on getting close 

 to the river again, in a place where the trees are very tall, and not thickly grouped, my friend 

 and cicerone drew our attention to a good-sized nest, which was placed about one third of the 

 way up a tallish poplar. The nest was resting upon a large branch close to the bole of the tree, 

 and appeared exceedingly easy of access. Whilst my friend was climbing towards it, the bird 

 slipped off, and was shot immediately. It proved to be a female Falco sacer. Of this I was not 

 quite certain at the time, being then unacquainted with the distinctions between Falco lanarivts 

 and Falco sacer, though the size inclined me to decide in favour of the latter. The nest was not 

 very much larger than those of the numerous Hooded Crows we had already examined, but was 

 deep and comfortably lined, appearing, however, from the outside as like a large Crow's nest as 

 one bundle of sticks is like another. The eggs, four in number, were slightly incubated. In 

 size they seem to be intermediate between those of the Peregrine and Gyr-Falcon, being, how- 

 ever, longer in proportion to their breadth. Two of them are light in colour, the other two 

 much darker. One of the latter is accurately represented in the accompanying plate (plate xii. 

 fig. 1). It measures 2 - 2 inches by 1-6 inch. 



" The male bird was well observed shortly afterwards. Sitting, utterly motionless, on the 

 top of a dead tree, with his head turned over his shoulder, he seemed so mournfully conscious of 

 the catastrophe which had befallen his family, that I felt utterly ashamed of having added 

 murder to robbery in my desire to possess myself of an unknown bird. If the gun had still been 

 in my hand I could have shot him easily, as he then seemed indifferent to his fate ; but it so 

 happened that he flew away before that weapon actually arrived, and thus escaped being involved 

 in the ruin of his household." 



Mr. Farman writes (I.e.): — "The following year (1866) I had the good fortune to be 

 residing at Shitangick, and I carefully watched the habits of this species. Towards the middle 

 of March I observed two pairs of these Falcons frequenting the neighbourhood ; and at the end 

 of the month I found one of these pairs were repairing the old nest, from which Mr. R Barkley, 

 the preceding spring, had taken the young. In the first week of April I found the nest of the 

 second pair, at a distance of about two miles from that of the first. The nest was placed on a 



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