THE BIRDS USED IN HAWKING 15 



The difference of size between the two sexes in the case of 

 these splendid birds is, as it will be seen, considerable. But 

 both are so superior in speed and strength to any creatures at 

 which they are at all likely to be flown in England, that the list 

 of quarry suitable for the gerfalcon will, with a very few ex- 

 ceptions, serve for the ger tiercel also. This list includes gulls 

 of all kinds, herons, rooks and crows, wood-pigeon, black-game, 

 grouse, partridges, hares and rabbits, wild-duck of all descrip- 

 tions, Norfolk plover, and all the sea-fowls found on the coasts 

 of Great Britain and Ireland, except swans, and perhaps wild 

 geese. The gerfalcon will also take these latter, as well as kites 

 and cranes, peacocks, ptarmigan, and bustards, at which the 

 best of them may be flown in countries where such birds are to 

 be found in sufficiently open places. It is recorded of Henry, 

 king of Navarre, that he had a gerfalcon which Scaliger declares 

 to have struck down in his sight a buzzard, two wild geese, 

 divers kites, a crane, and a swan (Sir Thomas Browne, cited by 

 Harting, Bibliotheca Accipitraria, xxvii.). The flight of the ger 

 is marked by an appearance of power suitable to its size and 

 shape, and combines in an extraordinary degree swiftness and 

 the power of turning readily. When taught to wait on, it does 

 so in majestic style, often at a stupendous height ; and its stoop 

 from that direction is so " hard," as the old falconers termed it, 

 or in other words so swift and impetuous, that the quarry is less 

 often clutched and held than struck down with a blow as the 

 hawk passes, and is often found either killed or altogether dis- 

 abled by the violence of the shock. So great, indeed, is the 

 vehemence with which the ger flies and stoops, that the old 

 masters warned their pupils not to work them long on any 

 occasion, for fear of tiring them, and thus lowering their " pitch," 

 or impairing their powers of mounting. 



Gers have not had a very fair trial in the hands of modern 

 falconers. They have seldom come into their possession under 

 favourable conditions. Greenlanders, especially, have for the 

 most part been brought to European shores by ships, upon 

 which they were caught at sea by men quite unacquainted with 

 the proper mode of treating a wild-caught hawk. Almost 

 always their plumage has suffered badly ; and they themselves, 

 having been kept alive on unsuitable or scanty food, have been 

 reduced so low as to permanently lose some of their natural 

 strength and vitality. The same thing may be said of several 

 Icelanders and Norwegians which have reached the hands of 

 the falconer in pitiable plight. Gers are very seldom taken 

 on the passage in Holland, although one tiercel, captured by 



