PER'EGRINE FALCON, Falco peregrinus, a species of falcon (q.v.)found in almost all parts of the world. The female is larger than the male, being about 18 in, in length from the tip of the bill to the tip of the tail, whilst the male is only about 15 inches. The female is the falcon of falconers, and the male the tercel. The plumage of the two 'sexes is very similar. The back, wings, and tail are bluish-slate or ash-gray, the feath ers barred with a darker tint; the crown of the head, back of the neck, and a spot below the eye, nearly black; the front of the neck. white, with dark longitudinal lines; the breast, belly, and plumage of the legs, whitish, with dark-brown transverse bars. The wings are very long, reaching almost to the tip of the tail; and the bird is remarkable for its power of flight, being capable of maintaining for a considerable time a rate of more than 100 miles an hour, so that it is often seen far from any of its haunts or breed •ing-places• whence the name peregrine, from the Latin peregrinus, a wanderer. Its -swoop, when rushing on its quarry, is wonderful both for rapidity and force. The peregrine falcon can easily carry through the air a bird or quadruped fully its own weight. Its ordinary prey consists of grouse, woodcocks, rabbits, etc. The woodcock in vain seeks to escape from it by threading its way among branches of trees and brush wood; the falcon follows, and exhibits at least an equal power of moving with great rapidity in the thicket without getting entangled or stayed. Sometimes the quarry soars into the air, and seeks safety by trying to keep above the falcon, till both are lost to ordinary sight ; but the falcon generally gets uppermost, and" strikes" it at last. Owing
to the quantity of game the peregrine falcon will capture—it is said that a single nest will coastline nearly 300 brace of grouse in a season, besides other prey—it is ruthlessly trapped or otherwise destroyed, so that this beautiful bird is in danger, like others of its family, of being exterminated. The peregrine falcon is a bird as remarkable for bold ness as for power of flight. It has sometimes been seen to pounce on game shot by a sportsman, before it could fall to the ground; and an instance occurred in Yorkshire of a peregrine falcon dashing through the glass of an aviary in a town, and carrying off a bird. It makes its nest on ledges of high rocks, either on the sea coast or in inland precipices and ravines, and lays from two to four eggs. Numerous localities in Britain have long been noted as breeding-places of the peregrine falcon, and some of them are regularly visited for the young birds, which are still trained in certain places for the sport of falconry. The bird, caught when adult. although more difficult to train, is, however, believed to possess superior qualities. The peregrine falcon is more docile, and becomes more gentle than the gyrfalcon. The young female of the peregrine falcon has been by mistake described by Pennant and others under the name of the Ian ner (q.v.) a species not found in Britain. ,