NOTES ON THE 

 BIRDS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. 



JOHN WATSON, 

 Ferfi. Leigh, Kendal. 



Greenland Falcon {Fako candicans). — So far as I have been 

 able to make out, only a single bird of this species has occurred 

 in the Lake District. This is an adult male, and is now in the col- 

 lection of the late Sir Richard Musgrave, Bart, at Edenhall. It was 

 shot near Crosby Ravensworth, in Westmorland, about 1864, and is 

 a beautiful creamy-white individual, exhibiting the characteristics of 

 the Greenland race of Jer Falcons. In a privately-printed note 

 kindly sent me, Mr. J. G. Goodchild has put the occurrence of this 

 specimen upon permanent record, as also that of the Iceland 

 Falcon below. These notices are each illustrated by a woodcut of 

 the bird they describe. 



Iceland Falcon {Falco isla?idus). — An immature female Iceland 

 Falcon was shot by Mr. John Dodd, at Winton, Westmorland, about 

 1842, Mr. Goodchild says that when first seen the bird was perched 

 upright on a wall, and so intent was it upon the doings of some 

 magpies and other birds, that it was approached without difficulty 

 and shot. 



A second occurrence of this bird was that of a female, shot near 

 Cross Fell, on the 13th October, i860. This specimen was preserved 

 by Mr. Blackett Greenwell, of Alston, who still retains the bones 

 and some of the wing feathers of the bird (Duckworth, in Trans. 

 Cumb. and West. Assoc., No. viii, p. 206). 



Peregrine Falcon {Falco peregrinns). — The Peregrine is the 

 largest of our resident Falcons, and though much more rare than 

 formerly, is still by no means extinct. From our note book we learn 

 that at one time and another there have been not less than seventeen 

 nesting-places of the Peregrine in the Lake District, about half of 

 which number we have visited. To these the birds return year after 

 year, and do not leave unless much persecuted. The breeding sites 

 are invariably among the rocks of the crags, and generally in the 

 most precipitous and inaccessible parts. Peregrines are early breeders, 

 and usually have young by the middle of April. These the shepherds 

 and dalesfolk are careful to destroy whenever practicable, from a 

 mistaken notion that the ' big blue hawk ' is injurious to the lambs of 

 the fell sheep. We have known two instances in which the Peregrines 

 had their nest in close proximity to that of a Raven — in one case 



July 1888. 



