180 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Bird Rock; one of them, now in my possession, is exceptionally 

 well-marked. The Buzzard allows itself to be shot or trapped at 

 all times with the greatest ease. The hen bird will sit till one is 

 within a few yards of the nest. I have sometimes seen a Buzzard 

 cross the valley with half-folded wings, and it occasionally hovers, 

 looking for the moment like a giant Kestrel. On fine evenings at 

 sunset the Buzzards soar as if to enjoy the last rays of the light. 

 They are constantly harassed and beset by Crows. The farmers 

 do not view them with favour on account of the occasional loss of 

 a newly-hatched chicken. Nest-building begins at the end of 

 March, rocks being generally chosen in this district, but 

 exceptionally a tree. The site can usually be reached without 

 the least difficulty. A nest containing two eggs on May 21st, 

 1893, was garnished with fresh-pulled leafy twigs of birch and 

 mountain ash. Another nest, on the 23rd, contained three young 

 ones about a week old ; and provision in the shape of a shrew, a 

 mouse, and a piece of sheep intestine. Later, the nest contained 

 pellets and the remains of a crow. A nesting-ledge, which I 

 inspected on May 6th, 1894, was about a yard across, littered 

 with bits of stick and sedge, with a slight grass-lined hollow in 

 the middle for the two eggs. The old birds hovered overhead, 

 mewing piercingly and persistently. A pair near Plynlimmon on 

 May 30th, 1894, showed no signs of having a nest. 



Rough-legged Buzzard, B. lagopus. Only one, or possibly 

 two, occurrences. 



Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus. Appears to be banished 

 from most of its former breeding-places, as on the cliff between 

 Aberystwyth and Borth, in the colony of Herring Gulls between 

 Aberaeron and New Quay, and on the Bird Rock. At the latter 

 locality, where it was long tolerated, Mr. Hutchings has seen it 

 strike down Jackdaws, and, on picking them up, has found the 

 back torn by the claw of the hind toe, with which alone the stroke 

 seemed to be given. Mr. F. Abel tells me that one caught up a 

 Teal which he had wounded. Their existence here was at last 

 considered incompatible with the rearing of Pheasants at Peniarth 

 Uchaf, so in 1888 the male bird was shot. The female went 

 away, and shortly returned with another mate ; both were shot, 

 and the three eggs taken. Since this date the Bird Rock has 

 been falconless. There was a nest upon the cliff some six miles 

 south of Aberystwyth till 1893, when I believe the young birds 



