FALCO PEREGRINUS. 117 



slung old pitchers and pans down to frighten them, and 

 sometimes got one or two young ones by this. The one he had 

 would eat three rooks in a day. But an old carrion crow was 

 more than a match for it every way but one, which was to seize 

 the crow's powerful beak with its talons and dig into the 

 carrion's entrails with its own till out of breath, then it lay and 

 panted on the ruin it had made — as you may have seen a lion 

 or tiger do with a bone at feeding-time. He sometimes took its 

 talons off the crow's beak ; then what a scream the peregrine 

 made, as if it knew it was no match for the crow otherwise in 

 the cage. He put a jackdaw beside it — the cage was six feet 

 square, with roosting spars — but although together for a day the 

 daw always eluded it. For this feat he set the jackdaw free. 

 It crossed the Esk after him by leaping on the tips of its wings 

 and tail, although it could fly quite well. As the peregrine — 

 like other long-winged birds — has a slight difficulty in rising 

 from a level surface, this may have induced it to use this clumsy 

 hopping method. Possibly several young birds bred on the 

 coast lose their lives by falling into the sea, being unable to 

 rise. The peregrine is widely distributed throughout Britain ; 

 but, unless in suitable localities, is by no means common, 

 although I have got several about St Andrews. 



From the many quotations from Shakespeare about this falcon, 

 it is evident the " all-time poet" knew it thoroughly, and used 

 it beautifully, sometimes savagely — like itself — as in " Measure 

 for Measure," when he makes the pure-souled advocate of virtue, 

 Isabella, exclaim against the impure-minded Deputy-Judge, 

 Angelo : — 



Isa. " This outward-sainted deputy, 



Whose settled visage and deliberate word 



Nips youth i' the head, and follies doth enmew, 



As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil ; 



His filth within being cast, he would appear 



A pond as deep as hell. 

 Claud. The princely Angelo ? 

 Isa. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell, 



The damnedst body to invest and cover 



In princely guards. Dost thou think, Claudio, 



If I would yield him my virginity, 



Thou might'st be freed ?" 



Even in his early poems — as in the " Bape of Lucrece," when 

 she wakes and finds Tarquin's one hand upon her breast, the 

 other with his falchion gleaming above her — how tellingly he 

 introduces it — 



" Then Tarquin shakes aloft his Roman blade, 

 Which, like a falcon towering in the skies, 



