518 Birds. 



kestrils ; of which latter birds, surprising as it appears, Jackman as- 

 sured me he has found greater numbers than of any other bird, except 

 the puffin. 



A circumstance was told me connected with the history of this poor 

 fellow, of a painfully interesting nature. His wife had year after year 

 besought him to give up an occupation so fraught with danger to 

 him, and consequently with anxiety to herself. In the fifteenth year 

 he yielded to her entreaties ; and in that year she died. 



Between this, and another pair settled within two miles of my own 

 dwelling, there seems to be a marked difference of habit. Whereas 

 the Freshwater birds disappear soon after their young have been ta- 

 ken, and are not seen again till the following spring ; the Shanklin 

 birds inhabit the cliffs all the year round, and may be seen, at least 

 one or other of them, almost any day, sitting on a projecting root im- 

 mediately beneath the crest of nearly the highest point of the cliff. 

 While perched there, some three hundred feet above me, I have, by 

 the aid of my glass, made myself so intimately acquainted with their 

 fine figure, that I almost fancy I could recognise these individuals 

 among any number of their own species ; and methinks they consider 

 me as not quite a stranger, for their full bright eye seems always as 

 intensely watching my movements, as I am scanning theirs : and yet 

 they betray no signs of alarm, and will seldom quit their perch, even 

 if shouted at. The baying of my Newfoundland dog, however, gene- 

 rally causes them to take wing. 



There exists another marked difference of habit between these birds 

 and those at Freshwater. The Shanklin birds invariably lay a second 

 time ; while those at Freshwater, so far as I have been able to learn, 

 never have done so. 



The display of the well-known courage of this bird I had once a 

 favourable opportunity of witnessing. The male of the Shanklin pair, 

 seated on his usual perch, was disturbed by the croak of a pair of ra- 

 vens, who were flying to and fro in his vicinity. No sooner did they 

 appear, than he dashed at them and drove them off. The ravens re- 

 turned : but the instant that a single croak intimated as much to the 

 peregrine, he repeated his attack. This occurred again and again ; 

 and though I think the ravens always succeeded in avoiding the blow 

 of their enemy, they never ventured to resent it, but evidently shun- 

 ned the conflict. 



Yet the peregrine will condescend sometimes to a very humble 

 quarry. I have, on two occasions, witnessed the same Shanklin pair 

 in pursuit of a lark ; and was, on both occasions, surprised at the 



