A new use for a pencil, I 
CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTION. 
OW that the Sea Eagle and the Osprey are extinct, mainly 
| \ through the depredations of egg-collectors, and the 
Golden Eagle is only tolerated in parts of Scotland where 
sportsmen find the bird useful in thinning down the grouse 
and hares that interfere with deer-stalking, the Peregrine 
Falcon is the grandest bird of prey we have left in England. 
The following account is based on field notes made during 
three successive springs at the same eyrie, and as their full 
relation involves a lot of monotonous reiteration, I will try and 
combine the salient facts of all three years in their proper order, 
so as to give a connected account from the date of hatching to the 
time when the young leave the eyrie. The full notes will, I hope, 
appear later in the Zoologist. My friend, Smith Whiting, whose 
bird photographs are a joy to all his intimates, holds strong views 
against the publication of any accounts of rare birds, as this, in 
his experience, only serves to betray them to egg-collectors, who 
really, in their lust for the eggs of such, seem to be born stamp- 
collectors who have, unfortunately, missed their true vocation. I 
do so, however, in the hope that my narrative may raise new 
friends for the Peregrine Falcon and other rare birds, and so lead to 
their better protection. A simple method these may employ is to 
wet each egg and then scrawl all over it with a violet marking-ink 
pencil. This has no prejudicial effect on incubation, but renders 
the egg useless to collectors, as the violet marks are more indelible 
than the natural blotches. 
To those who, like myself, have never seen a wild Peregrine 
before those figured here, I may say that it is a bird about the size 
of a rook or crow ; that when seen on the ground its general build 
and style of walk suggest a parrot ; and that, as it flies, it looks like 
a pigeon with rather a long tail. The female is an inch or two 
