Agricultural conditions have had much to do with the decline of this sport, an amusement which lacks the one-sidedness of a Pheasant or Partridge drive, and one in which the forces of nature are matched together.

The Peregrine, as its name implies, is a bird of passage, and visits on migration most parts of our islands. In the nesting season at the end of March or early in April it returns to its former eyrie, generally on some overhung ledge of a cliff on which there is a little earth, or more rarely in the old deserted nest of Rook or Crow. It adds no materials but lays its four beautiful yellowish eggs, which are thickly marked with deeper shades of orange and rufous, on the bare ground, or in the nest just as it was found. The young are covered at first with whitish down. Its food, which is always taken on the wing, consists of birds of all kinds, up to the size of a Crow, but Ducks, Sea-fowl, and Pigeons constitute, as a rule, its chief prey.

The young remain near their home for some time, till they are finally driven away by their parents, but the old birds, having once settled on a home, do not as a rule wander very far away from it. In its more northerly breeding haunts, however, both old and young migrate on the approach of winter.

The male, usually known in hawking parlance as the “tiercel,” is much smaller than his mate, and has the upper parts slate grey; the under parts buffish white, barred with black. The crown and cheeks are also black. The female is browner and more thickly barred on the under parts. The young have buff margins to the feathers of the back and are striped instead of being barred below. Length of male 15 in.; wing 12·5 in. The female is larger.