The flight of the Peregrine Falcon is wonderfully rapid. One of these birds having escaped from the falconry of Henri II., it is said that it performed the whole distance from Fontainebleau to Malta in one day, over three hundred leagues. It hovers in the air with graceful facility, and when it marks a victim, darts upon it with extraordinary rapidity, courage, and ferocity.
The Falcon feeds principally on aquatic birds, Pigeons, Partridges, and Larks. So great is its courage that it has been known to pursue the latter into the nets of the bird-catcher. If compelled, it will eat dead fish, as was observed by Audubon on the banks of the Mississippi; but this latter circumstance is excessively rare. This bird possesses little dread of man, for it sometimes has the audacity to swoop upon the game which the sportsman has killed, and not unfrequently succeeds in carrying it off. One of these birds established itself, some years ago, on the towers of Notre-Dame, in Paris, and every day captured several of the tame Pigeons which fly at liberty in the city. This continued for a month, and was only put a stop to by the proprietors of the Pigeons keeping their pets shut up. Thus deprived of its means of existence, the Falcon soon disappeared.
Notwithstanding the magnificent powers of flight of the Peregrine Falcon, it is not always successful in its forays. Naumann narrates that he saw a Pigeon pursued by one of these destroyers throw itself into a lake, dive down, and shortly after emerge in another part, thus baffling its enemy. When a Pigeon is harassed by a Falcon it endeavours to mount above its enemy; if it succeeds in this it is saved, for the Falcon becomes fatigued, and gives up the pursuit.
Large Ravens are inveterate enemies of the Peregrine Falcon. They have frequent fights, in which the former sometimes prove the conquerors. A Raven has been known to break the skull of a Falcon with a blow of its bill.
The Falcon is gifted with a more remarkable degree of longevity than even the Eagle. It is reported that in 1797, at the Cape of Good Hope, a Falcon was caught which showed no signs of decrepitude, and which had on a golden collar with an inscription stating that in 1610 it belonged to James I., King of England; it was therefore over one hundred and eighty-seven years old.
Fig. 287.—The Hobby (Hypobuorchis subbuteo).
The parent birds exhibit the greatest solicitude for their young until able to provide for themselves: when that stage of maturity arrives they are driven forth.
Fig. 288.—Merlins (H. Æsalon).