HOW PEREGRINES STRIKE THEIR PREY 151 
these terrible talons without the skin being torn. 
As the heads of grouse are frequently cut off 
when struck by a peregrine, it is the opinion of 
foresters who have watched them with their 
glasses that it is done by the wing. Falconers 
deny this and maintain that it is done by the 
hind talon. How, then, it may be asked, can this 
be done when there is not a scratch on the victim, 
but only a bruise indicating where the blow was 
struck ? " 
The answer to this argument is that there is 
absolutely reliable evidence to the contrary — 
in other words, that sometimes the skin is torn. 
Major Radclyffe in his letter referred to above 
writes : "I have seen a grouse ripped open from 
its tail to its neck." 
Captain Portal says : "I have examined hun- 
dreds of game-birds killed by hawks, and have 
always found the marks of the two hind talons 
or one of them." 
Sometimes, no doubt, as in the instance referred 
to by Mr. Speedy, there is a bruise along the 
spine and the skin is not torn, but this is no doubt 
to be explained, as is pointed out by a writer cited 
below, by the way in which a falcon shuts its feet 
when stooping, the hind talon on each foot 
