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PEREGRINE FALCON. 43 



THE great docility of the Peregrine Falcon, and the 

 comparative ease with which the birds are procured, has 

 rendered them the most frequent objects of the falconer's 

 care and tuition, and it is this species which is the most 

 commonly used at the present day by those who still oc- 

 casionally pursue the amusement of hawking. Formerly 

 this sporting diversion was the pride of the rich, and these 

 birds, as well as their eggs, were preserved by various 

 legislative enactments. So valuable were they considered 

 when possessed of the various qualities most in request, 

 that in the reign of James I. Sir Thomas Monson is said 

 to have given one thousand pounds for a cast (a couple) of 

 Hawks. The qualities of a good Falcon have been so 

 aptly described by Walton in his Complete Angler, as 

 addressed by Auceps to his companions, that, illustrating 

 the powers and habits of the bird, it is here in part intro- 

 duced. " In the air my noble, generous Falcon ascends 

 to such a height, as the dull eyes of beasts and fish are 

 not able to reach to : their bodies are too gross for such 

 high elevation ; but from which height, I can make her 

 to descend by a word from my mouth, which she both 

 knows and obeys, to accept of meat from my hand, to own 

 me for her master, to go home with me, and be willing the 

 next day to afford me the like recreation." 



How much the former predilection for this particular 

 sport has now subsided, may be learned from the follow- 

 ing paragraph in Sir John Sebright's Observations upon 

 Hawking, published in 1826. " The village of Falcon - 

 swaerd, near Bois-le-Duc, in Holland, has for many years 

 furnished falconers to the rest of Europe. I have known 

 many falconers in England, and in the service of different 

 princes on the Continent; but I never met with one of 

 them who was not a native of Falconswaerd. It has been 

 the practice of these sober and industrious men to stay 



