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rather incline to think, permanent or nearly permanent varieties. 

 It is a curious fact, by the way, and one much to be regretted, 

 that Falconers and Naturalists never appear to consult each other. 

 It was a fact long known to all Falconers that there were two 

 species of Gyr Falcon, while all naturalists declared that there 

 was only one species; till, at the Newcastle meeting of the 

 British Association, in 1838, Mr. Hancock, of Newcastle, (whose 

 " Gorged Falcon," in the Crystal Palace this year, shewed him to 

 unite the qualities of a Falconer and a Naturalist in a rare degree) 

 produced a set of specimens both of the Norway and of the Ice- 

 land Falcons, which cleared up the point, and convinced the 

 Naturalists that the Falconers were right. 



I am greatly inclined to think that there is yet much of the 

 history of this interesting group of birds to be gained from the 

 Falconers, if we could see them ; but, alas, that race itself has so 

 dwindled away, that this day was the first on which I had even 

 had an opportunity of seeing an hawk flown, and nearly the first 

 conversation I had ever had with a student of the science. 



I was aware, of course, that the stately heron was not our des- 

 tined quarry, but confess I regretted that a pigeon was to be 

 thrown to them instead of finding a partridge at the least. I soon 

 found however my mistake, as the flight at a pigeon is infinitely 

 more interesting than that at a partridge. 



The Tercels were thrown off, and when well on wing the pigeon 

 was thrown to them, Had the hawks been in perfect condition 

 and regular practice, I believe they would have taken him nearly 

 with certainty, but as it was, they chased him, striking at him and 

 turning him for a considerable time, till he reached some trees a 

 quarter of a mile off or thereabouts, when they returned without 

 him : but a second pigeon, not flying quite so strongly as the first, 

 was taken after a very short flight. 



The flight at a partridge is tame work by comparison, as when 

 the hawk gets his proper elevation, a single pounce generally 

 secures the steady and straight flying bird ; but to see a tercel 

 first gain his elevation above the pigeon, and then make his 

 stroke, (a beautiful thing in itself,) and then to see the pigeon, by 

 the most violent exertions of his powerful wings, doubling, flinging 

 himself head over heels, as it were, in the air to avoid the stroke, 

 and still to keep making his way towards the cover, was a sport 

 somewhat indeed like coursing, but as superior to it in beauty 

 and interest as the locale of the one is physically to that of the other. 



Another friend, who has much experience in falconry, has given 

 me an account of one tercel, trained by his brother, who during 

 his first year never missed killing a pigeon single handed ; and 

 that on one occasion, when a pigeon passed over a plantation, he 

 was seen to take his place below his quarry till the plantation was 



One other scene, however, was enacted ere we left the field, 

 which J would not have missed on any account, though it was one 

 which certainly should never have been exhibited under the name 



