12 TRE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



with considerable success, and is in my opinion the 

 pursuit which preeminently deserves the untrans- 

 latable title of sport. In the work just mentioned will 

 be found, at p. 99, an amusing account of the method 

 of catching Falcons for training in Holland. I only 

 mention this for the reason that I have adopted this 

 same method in this immediate neighbourhood, and 

 caught four wild Peregrines thereby. It is a some- 

 what remarkable fact that, although the great majority 

 of Peregrines that I have known of, and seen shot 

 and caught, in this county have been in immature 

 plumage, every male has been an adult, or, at any 

 rate, a twice-moulted individual*. I heard from one 

 of my gamekeepers of his having seen a Falcon catch 

 a Starling in the second w^eek of August 1870 in this 

 immediate neighbourhood. This is an unusually 

 early appearance of this species in these parts. The 

 Peregrine is known by many names amongst game- 

 keepers and others in various parts of the country. I 

 have heard it called Blue-Hawk, Partridge-Hawk, 

 Duck-Hawk, Bird-Hawk, &c. ; but I think since I 

 have flown Falcons in these parts that the proper 

 term Falcon, or some modification such as Falkner 

 or Fawkenhawk, is generally used. 



I have kept many Peregrines, both trained and 

 untrained, and from my personal experience am in- 

 clined to credit them with a high degree of intelli- 

 gence, and, against the generally received opinion, a 

 capacity for attachment to man entirely apart from 

 " cupboard love." But the truth is that there is just 

 as much variety of disposition and physical constitu- 

 tion amongst Falcons certainly, and in all probability 

 amongst other species of birds, as amongst dogs, 



* This paragraph was written in 1876, and no longer holds good. 



