PEREGRINE FALCON 135 
this neighbourhood. Here the birds are surrounded by 
Herring Gulls, Shags, Razorbills, Black Guillemots, and 
Jackdaws. 
Ata station on the east coast also I have seen the nesting 
site in a wild situation high up the loftiest cliff in a reach 
of rocky coast, where the steep, thinly covered with ivy, 
overlooked a recess hardly to be reached by land; and a 
somewhat similar position, also amidst ivy, has been used 
near the southern extremity of the island. 
At the site was in 1895 about thirty feet from the 
bottom of a steep, but not very high cliff, on a ledge 
luxuriant with grass and wildflowers, on which lay a few 
sticks, fragments of a Crow’s or Raven’s nest. 
The eggs are usually laid about the end of March or 
beginning of April, and the young leave the nest about two 
months later. 
While at some places the Peregrine is, as above indi- 
cated, subject to considerable persecution, at others it is 
probably almost or quite unmolested from year to year. 
The agitation of the parents unfortunately renders them 
very conspicuous during the latter part of the breeding 
season, their loud and sharp yelping cries drawing immediate 
attention amid the hoarser chorus of the sea-birds. At 
such a time the fine flight of the Falcon is also well dis- 
played, as it darts from its ledge and flies out high over 
the sea with incredibly rapid strokes, or rests hovering on 
its wings after having attained a sufficient distance. 
When incubation-is well advanced, the sitting bird shows 
much concern when the nest is approached, and will some- 
times dash at the intruder, chattering loudly, checking 
herself and drawing off only within a few yards of his 
head. On such an occasion a dog was struck and his ear 
torn, when near his master. In the neighbourhood of the 
nesting shelf is often a favourite perch where the bird keeps 
