otion, birds have generally been
regarded as wanderers more or less; anything in the nature of a fixed
abode, apart from the actual nest, having been accounted foreign to
their mode of life; and even the locality immediately surrounding the
nest has not been apprehended as possessing any meaning for the owner of
that nest. No doubt the supply of food determines their movements for a
considerable part of the year; they seek it where they can find it, here
to-day, there to-morrow--in fact few species fail to move their quarters
at one season or another, so that there is much truth in the notion that
birds are wanderers. Yet to suppose that every individual one sees or
hears--every Lapwing on the meadow, or Nightingale in the withy bed--is
in that particular spot just because it happens to alight there as it
roams from place to place, is to take a view which the observed facts do
not support. For as soon as the question of reproduction dominates the
situation, a new condition arises, and the habits formed during the
previous months are reversed, and the males, avoiding one another, or
even becoming actively hostile, prefer a life of seclusion to their
former gregariousness--all of which occurs just at the moment when we
might reasonably expect them to exhibit an increased liveliness and
restlessness as a result of their endeavour to secure mates; and so
universal is the change that it might almost be described as an
accompaniment of the sexual life of birds generally.

That the Raven and certain birds of prey exert an influence over the
particular area which they inhabit has long been known, and it has been
recognised more especially in the case of the Peregrine Falcon,
possibly because the bird lives in a wild and attractive country, and,
forcing itself under the notice of naturalists, has thus had a larger
share of attention devoted to its habits. Moreover, when a species is
represented by comparatively few individuals, and each pair occupies a
comparatively large tract of country, it is a simple matter to trace the
movements and analyse the behaviour of the birds. There is a rocky
headland in the north-west of Co. Donegal comprising some seven miles or
so of cliffs, where three pairs of Falcons and two pairs of Ravens have
nested for many years. Each year the different pairs have been more or
less successful in rearing their young; each year the young can be seen
accompanying their parents up to the time when the sexual