(PEREGRINE FALCON.)
+Falco peregrinus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 121; _Withington,
Ibis_, 1888, p. 470. +Falco communis+, _Sharpe, Cat. B._ i. p.
376.
_Description._--Above plumbeous, lighter on the rump, more or less
distinctly barred with blackish; head and cheeks blackish: beneath
white, tinged with cinnamomeous, abdomen and thighs sparingly
traversed by narrow black cross bands; under surface of wings
white, regularly banded with ashy black; bill plumbeous; cere
yellow; feet yellow, nails black: whole length 20 inches, wing 14·0,
tail 6·7. _Female_ similar, but larger.
_Hab._ Old and New Worlds.
The Peregrine Falcon is found throughout the Argentine Republic, but
is nowhere numerous, and is not migratory; nor is it "essentially a
duck-hawk," as in India according to Dr. Anderson, for, it preys chiefly
on land birds. It is solitary, and each bird possesses a favourite
resting-place or _home_, where it spends several hours every day, and
also roosts at night. Where there are trees it has its chosen site where
it may always be found at noon; but on the open treeless pampas a mound
of earth or the bleached skull of a horse or cow serves it for a perch,
and here for months the bird may be found every day on its stand. It
sits upright and motionless, springs suddenly into the air when taking
flight, and flies in a straight line, and with a velocity which few
birds can equal. Its appearance always causes great consternation
amongst other birds, for even the Spur-winged Lapwing, the spirited
persecutor of all other Hawks, flies screaming with terror from it. It
prefers attacking moderately large birds, striking them on the wing,
after which it stoops to pick them up. While out riding one day, I saw a
Peregrine sweep down from a great height and strike a Burrowing-Owl to
the earth, the Owl having risen up before me. It then picked it up and
flew away with it in its talons.
The Peregrine possesses one very curious habit. When a plover, pigeon,
or duck is killed, it eats the skin and flesh of the head and neck,
picking the vertebræ clean of the flesh down to the breast-bone, and
also eating the eyes, but leaving the body untouched. I have found
scores of dead birds with head and neck picked clean in this way; and
once I watched for some months a Peregrine which had established itself
near my home, where it made havoc among the Pigeons; and I frequently
marked the spot to which it carried its prey, and on going to the place
always found that the Pigeon's head and neck only had been stripped
of flesh. The Burrowing-Owl has an analogous habit, for it invariably
rejects the hind quarters of the toads and frogs which it captures.
At the approach of the warm season the Peregrines are often seen in twos
and threes violently pursuing each other at a great height in the air,
and uttering shrill piercing screams, which can be heard distinctly
after the birds have disappeared from sight.