The Peregrine 



earn the reward of his prowess and the latter to a happy 

 despatch. 



Agricultural conditions have had much to do with the 

 decline of this sport, an amusement which lacks the one- 

 sidedness of a Pheasant or Partridge drive, and one in 

 which the forces of nature are matched together. 



The Peregrine, as its name implies, is a bird of passage, 

 and visits on migration most parts of our islands. In the 

 nesting season at the end of March or early in April it 

 returns to its former eyrie, generally on some overhung ledge 

 of a cliff on which there is a little earth, or more rarely 

 in the old deserted nest of Eook or Crow. It adds no 

 materials but lays its four beautiful yellowish eggs, which 

 are thickly marked with deeper shades of orange and rufous, 

 on the bare ground, or in the nest just as it was found. The 

 young are covered at first with whitish down. Its food, 

 which is always taken on the wing, consists of birds of all 

 kinds, up to the size of a Crow, but Ducks, Sea-fowl, and 

 Pigeons constitute, as a rule, its chief prey. 



The young remain near their home for some time, till 

 they are finally driven away by their parents, but the old 

 birds, having once settled on a home, do not as a rule wander 

 very far away from it. In its more northerly breeding 

 haunts, however, both old and young migrate on the approach 

 of winter. 



The male, usually known in hawking parlance as the 

 " tiercel," is much smaller than his mate, and has the upper 

 parts slate grey ; the under parts bullish white, barred with 

 black. The crown and cheeks are also black. The female 

 is browner and more thickly barred on the under parts. 



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