552 
BIRD-LIFE. 
principally birds, despising any food which it has not 
won for itself. All members of the Partridge and Pigeon 
families are tit-bits in its eyes, though the hare has good 
cause to look on the Falcon as a deadly enemy. It is rare 
that the quarry escapes, and then only succeeds in so doing 
by diving, if a water-bird, or beating a precipitate retreat 
into some hole or crevice, if on land. A bird singled out 
from a flock is lost, for no bird of prey strikes hap-hazard 
amongst the crowd. The Falcon will follow tame Pigeons 
and other birds into the very villages—water-fowl to 
the surface of the lake itself—mountain game, over hill 
and dale, through woods and passes, following with rapid 
pinions, at times swift as an arrow, and never deviating 
for an instant from the object of its pursuit. No living 
creature escapes its piercing glance. No sooner does its 
quarry move, than down it rushes with outspread talons 
to strike the fatal blow. The powerful and artful Raven, 
even, falls a prey to its indomitable pluck and perseverance. 
Thus it would be the most destructive of all northern 
birds, were there not such a superabundance of bird-life 
in those regions. In its wild state man does not look 
upon it with favour, especially during the breeding 
season. The Falcon is always careful to select for its 
eyrie some crag which it knows will, later on, be covered 
with thousands of breeding rock-fowl, amongst whom it 
determines to take up its abode. 
The Falcon-catchers of old were better acquainted with 
the eyrie than we are, and Faber is the first to give us 
information on this head. “ I only once came across the 
nest of the Jer Falcon, and that on the 6th July, 1821, 
in the south-western part of Iceland, about half a mile 
from the sea: it was large and flat, and placed on the 
upper part of an inaccessible precipice. There were three 
