208 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



who ascertained that it had been shot by Mr. John Dodd of 

 Harcla, at Winton, near Kirkby-Stephen, about the year 1842. 1 

 Mr. Goodchild obtained possession of the specimen and tried to 

 remount it, but unsuccessfully. Mr. Hancock pronounced it to 

 be a female bird of the first year. It has been figured as such. 

 The skin is preserved in the Carlisle museum. A second female 

 Iceland Falcon was shot upon our eastern border, near Crossfell, 

 on Oct. 13, 1860. It was preserved by Blackett Greenwell, on 

 whose information it was recorded by Mr. Duckworth. 2 Mr. 

 Greenwell subsequently presented me with the sternum and 

 some feathers of this bird, which had entered the collection of 

 a Mr. Rothery. Mr. J. W. Harris informed me that an Iceland 

 Falcon was taken at Deanscale in 1835, but this he thought 

 was probably an escaped bird. 



PEREGRINE FALCON. 



Falco peregrinus, Tunstall. 



There can be no doubt that the Peregrine Falcon has nested 

 from time immemorial among the precipices of the Lake 

 district, but the first distinct record of its presence is that of 

 Dr. Heysham, and relates to the eastern division of Cumberland, 

 in which the Falcon has always been a scarce bird. Dr. 

 Heysham knew of birds which bred annually near Gilsland, 

 either in a rock near the cascade, or in another locality six 

 miles distant, on the road between Carlisle and Newcastle. 3 He 

 shot a female at her nest in the latter locality in May 1781, and 

 observed that, after the female was shot, the male fed the young 

 ones in the nest. For all that we know to the contrary, the 

 doctor's experience of Peregrines was confined to the Gilsland 

 birds. At all events, he does not allude to any other individuals. 

 The younger Heysham had also a limited experience of the 



i Trans. Cumberland and Westmorland Assoc, No. vi. p. 161. 



2 lb. cit., No. viii. p. 206. 



3 The Peregrine long continued to breed near Gilsland. Michael 

 Walton of Greenhead wrote to T. C. Heysham, March 23, 1840, that he 

 hoped to procure for him eggs of the Peregrine, adding, ' There is one 

 pair comes to breed near Gilsland, and two pairs about five or six miles 

 from here. ' 



