INTRODUCTION.

XXXVl

Vol. I) PL XVEG

9], Faico PEREGRINUS-

PEREGRINE FALCON.

Besides Great Britain, the Peregrine frequents Greenland, Iceland, the whole of Europe, North Africa,
esides Grei ain, @

India, and China.

The following note ‘Ilustrative of one of the habits of this bird, kindly communicated to me by the Duke

of Argyll, will prove of interest. It 1s dated from Inverary, June 4, 1868. <I find we are rich this year in
f the Fulconide :—two of the Peregrine; two of the Hen-Harrier, and a third, the spot not yet

nests 0
One of my keepers, who is, I think, a reliable man, tells me that the

discovered ; and one of the Merlin.

- De ee Ne Rone Ze * 4 o a
day before yesterday, when he was watching one of the Peregrines’ nests, he saw the male come from across

Loch Fyne with a bird in his talons. When he cried, the hen bird came out of the precipice and joined him
A

in the air, and took from the male the bird be was carrying. [bis must have been a pretty sight.

99, FaLco SUBBUTEO é : : 3 Vol. I. Pl ox@mle
Hospy.
A summer bird in our islands, where it breeds in woods, either in the forsaken nest of a Crow or in one

which it builds for itself. I have received Hobbies from other countries besides Britain and the continent

of Europe, viz. India, China, and Africa, but not from America, where, indeed, it is not found. This bird

and some others of the same form have been deemed sufficiently distinct from the other Falcons to constitute

it the type of a separate genus ; by those authors, therefore, who adopt minute divisions of genera, it is
termed Hypotriorchis subbuteo, instead of Falco subbuteo. It is less bold and sanguinary than the Peregrine
or the Merlin, feeds on insects to a considerable extent, particularly Chafers, and consequently is somewhat

crepuscular in its habits, such large insects being principally obtainable as they flit round the tops of great

trees after sunset.
93. FaLco &SALON : : : : : : : : : Vol. I. Pl. XIX.
Meruin.

This bird has also been removed by Professor Kaup from the genus Fa/co into that of Aésalon, a division
which, being a very natural one, the scientific ornithologist wil not repudiate; but in a work-on Omnia
birds these minute divisions are scarcely admissible, since the finding of so many of their old friends under
new appellations could scarcely be otherwise than distasteful to my readers. In many -astances where I have

departed fi es :
| rom the practice of the older naturalists, I have been not lightly censured for the ‘nnovation; but