46 
that no one who saw is likely to forget. Poor dear old 
“Queen.” She did not escape, scathless, from the cruel trap : 
her foot suffered thereby, and gout (unknown to her till 
her acquaintance with man) rendered her useless, after one 
season’s brilliant performances. I used to know her stoop from 
all other a very long way off. As no dependence can be placed 
on such a source of supply, and as no one who can procure wild 
caught peregrines is likely to be contented long with nestlings, 
we modern users of peregrines, have resource yearly to a 
supply of this raw material for our sport, found, oddly 
enough, in the village of Valkenswaard, Hindhoven, Holland. 
No falcon, or no peregrine falcon, breeds in that flat land, but a 
yearly migration of birds of prey of most European varieties takes 
place there in November. This migration is, at that period of 
the year, entirely from west to east, and the usual track of the 
migration, appears to pass pretty centrally, over the barren 
heaths, on the confines of Holland, and Belgium. As the 
migration of birds is still very little understood by naturalists, 
or even where they go, or whence they come, in countless 
instances, conjecture isin vain. India is generally regarded as 
the hawk’s goal, but it is but conjecture. What is certain, is, 
that for a month or so, usually in November, a multitude of birds 
of prey are then and there to be seen, at a vast height in 
the air, and the circumstance has been taken advantage of 
for ages past by the Dutch falconers. Dutch falconry had 
never been extinguished until the final disappearance of 
the Loo Hawking Club, formerly presided over by the Sovereign 
and princes of the Netherlands. Valkenswaard has from im- 
memorial times been the home of hawk catchers, and is so still. 
Modern falconers yearly order of Adrian Mollen—formerly 
one of the Royal falconers—such peregrines as they desire, 
either adult—then called Haggard—or young, 1.e., birds of the 
year, from their color called red, or passage hawks—(adult 
peregrines are of a bluish color and totally different in hue 
from those in the brown dress of the first year’s plumage). 
According to the number ordered, Mollen “puts out,” or puts 
in order, so many “ huts ” on the heaths, and mans them with 
