MONTGOMERY—ON THE PEREGRINE FALCON LAYINGIN CONFINEMENT. 181 
and colour—one of them she unfortunately broke; the second is the 
curiously-marked egg on the table. It is nearly of the size and shape 
of the egg of the wild Peregrine, but very differently marked, being 
almost pure white at one end and blood-red at the other. The follow- 
ing spring I was beyond measure gratified by my old Falco presenting 
me with two beautiful eggs, one each in March and April. They are 
as large as the eggs taken from the nest, or rather from the rock, as the 
Peregrine makes no nest, and which are placed before you for compa- 
rison. The first of the two is nearly perfect in shape, the second quite 
30, and in both the colours are most brilliant and beautiful, in that re- 
spect beating the eggs of the Haggard Falcon. I regret to say the poor 
old Falco died the day after she laid the last egg. She was always 
ill for some days before laying, and was nine or ten years old when she 
died. I have inguired in nearly every Zoological Garden in Europe, and 
have asked every falconer, both amateur and professional, have they 
ever known a Peregrinus laying an egg in captivity, and the universal 
reply is in the negative. The only record I can find of such an occur- 
rence is in St. John’s book of ‘‘ Wild Sports, &c., in Ross-shire and Su- 
therland,” in which he casually mentions—‘‘ A boy brought me a 
Peregrine Falcon which laid a number of eggs, and died. Indeed the 
number of species of raptorial birds which have produced eggs in capti- 
vity I find to be very limited. In ten years I find only one species of 
eagle—viz., the Tawney Hagle (Aquila neviordes)—two of vultures, the 
Griffon (Gyps Fulvus), and the Cinereous, V. cinereus (the egg of the 
latter being rare in collections), and one Owl (Strix bubo), besides my 
old Falco, to do so. 
Professor EK. Perceval Wright stated, that though he could pretend 
to very little experience in training or keeping Falcons, yet what ex- 
perience he had in rearing the beautiful Zinnunculus gracilis, which was 
peculiar to the Mahé Islands, certainly bore out Mr. Montgomery’s 
views. He recollected on one occasion, when her Majesty’s man-of-war, 
“‘The Star,’’ was anchored off Port Victoria, at Mahe, Captain Brad- 
shaw had on board two pretty little leopard cubs, just brought from 
Zanjibar, that were in perfect health, and they were fed on fowls. One 
of these cubs had been given to him, and had become a great pet, living 
under the verandah of his house at Mahé, and it had every evening alive 
fowlto eat. This it partly plucked, and then, when the sun set, it would 
commence to eat it, generally eating many of the smaller feathers and 
all the small bones. As long as it had this diet and plenty of water to 
drink it grew apace. But when on coming home on board the “ Ery- 
manthe,”’ the leopard became a pet not only with Captain Rapatel, the 
commandant, but also of many of the crew, and especially of the butcher : 
it lost its bird food, got no bones, nothing but good pieces of beef and 
mutton, and by the time it got to Egypt, in spite of, or perhaps on ac- 
count of its luxurious living, it took ill, though in a week that elapsed 
before reaching Marseilles it again got its old accustomed diet, and quite 
recovered. He had given, when passing through London, the leopard 
VOL. V. 2B 
