A DESCRIPTIOX. 209 



James Campbell* gives a lively description of the flight 

 of a peregrine after a woodcock : — 



" The sprightly falconer, animated by the love of sport, 

 bursting the silken bands of sleep, rises early as the 

 lark and as full of glee, and hastens to the forests in 

 ([uest of health and manly diversion. His spaniels, 

 snuffing the scent of game in the breeze, traverse every 

 thicket with eager impatience, and mingling their bark 

 with the encouraging voice of their master, rouse the 

 echo into joyous clamour, from every hill and valley. 

 Cheeful hope plays light in his heart, while his eye en- 

 compasses with watchful look the scene of sport; and 

 his hawk testifies, by her half spread trembling wings, 

 her keenness for the-. aerial chase. Mark ! the dogs have 

 sprung a woodcock : the eager falconer unhoods the 

 bold-eyed bird, and with a cheerful whistle slips her at 

 her prey. 



" The cock, impelled by the dreaded presence of his 

 enemy, flies to his utmost speed. See ! he mounts ■ - 

 he mounts — he mounts to the height of the air, direct 

 as the feathered shaft from the twanging bow. The 

 hawk pursues him, rap, rap, rap, on sounding pinion, 

 and now breathes with open beak on his train, ready to 

 rise above him. The cock acquires new strength and 

 rapidity from the urgency of the danger behind him, 

 and darts more impetuously towards the sky, by the 

 force of terror. The hawk, enraged by his escape, re- 

 doubles her speed, and feels herself in\agorated by the 



* James Campljell, -n-ho -vrrote on falconry about the micUUe of last 

 century, was a Scotch gentleman, and not one of Lord Eglinton's fal- 

 coners, as erroneously stated in Blaine's " Encyclopedia of Eiu'al 

 Sports." In his work on falconry ]\Ir. Campbell states that he kept 

 hawks for forty years. He dedicated his work to Lord Eglinton. 



