"A BOLT FROM THE BLUE"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 14

"A BOLT FROM THE BLUE"

THE PEREGRINE'S HUNT FOR FOOD,

What is known as the "stoop" of the peregrine is one of the most wonderful of avian aerial performances, writes "T.A.0." in the "Manchester Guardian." The bird arises above its quarry, and then almost closing its wings drops upon it, a bolt from the blue. As -it shoots down upon its prey it strikes with the powerful hind claw, and can knock, the head- loff so large a bird as a duck. Death is almost: invariably instantaneous; there is nothing cruel in the., falcon's methods. ,

The: falcon doete not. prey- entirely upon pigeons by any means, but feeds largely, upon small wading birds of the shore. Nor does it always kill when it stoops, for a pigeon or other bird may dodge so cleverly as to escape. I have seen .a*-pigeon drop to the water repeatedly, when the disappointed peregrine rose again and again .for., further attacks, yet the hunted homer' escaped in the end. I have seen >teal refuse to rise, and the falcon dare not strike them on the ground; it is an aerial hunter and likes plenty of " room for ' its •kill. . ' . . .

The peregrine nests on eteep and dangerous cliffs; its nest.is often on a crag where no vegetation but'clumps, of thrift or white campion ding; it is an item in the coast scenery .of . the • wildest and most, beautiful, spots in .Britain, where the egg-collector is fortunately often baffled' by the forbidding surroundings. The ornithologist may- be sorry for the owner who loses, a valuable bird, but he is far more sorry if he loses a peregrine; the first" is personal, the second national property. At the: present time the falcon, for the female is the falcon, the male the tiercel, has her work cut- out to provide food for ravenous young, and when pigeons are \foolish enough to .fly near the eyrie she naturally tries to obtain them aa a healthy and pleasant meal. ■When the young leave the nest they will be driven away -by the old birds and her ravages amongst 7 pigeons will diminish.; . ■■■■'•_ ' " :