18 
FALCONID^. 
some other bird, it builds no nest for itself. The pair begin to 
baunt the neigbbourbood of the breeding-place as early as the 
beginning of I\Iarcb, even tbougb there is no work to do, the 
eggs seldom appearing before the end of April. Eggs also 
occur as late as the middle of May, but Matbewson tells me 
that this is only the case when the first set has been removed. 
Four eggs are usually laid, but I have seen five. Those from 
the same nest generally resemble one another in size and 
colouring, but two sets from different nests often differ in both 
respects. It need scarcely be mentioned that the colouring 
matter very easily washes off ; indeed, a Peregrine’s egg, 
washed to an almost uniform pale reddish cream colour, was 
once brought to me as that of the Iceland Hawk. Several 
pairs breed regularly in the cliffs of Unst, but it is seldom that 
either the eggs or the young are obtained, the situation chosen 
for them being so especially difficult of access. I have only on 
one occasion succeeded in obtaining a near view of a Peregrine’s 
nest, and that one had most certainly been the property of 
ravens. The young Falcons had left it about a week previously. 
The rock climbers can give me no reliable information as to 
whether it ever builds its own nest. Although the Peregrine 
is very destructive to wild fowl of all descrijotions, kittiwakes 
seem to be its favourite prey during the breeding season^ 
probably because they are not only exceedingly numerous, but 
very easy to catch. James Gray, another of our Unst fowlers^ 
tells me that once, when the young were nearly Hedged, he was 
shooting kittiwakes in the cliff ; and that, as the first one fell, a 
female Peregrine darted down, and seizing the dead bird before 
it could reach the water, bore it away to the nest. The same 
1‘eat was repeated a second time, and even a third time, after 
which liis astonished friends in tlie boat below were allowed to 
pick up all the gulls which fell. It was from this very bird 
and lier mate that Gray gained the greater part of his informa- 
tion as to tlie nesting habits of the species. He asserts that he 
nearly always leaves one egg in the nest the first time he robs 
it, and then three more are laid, but that if these also are 
