FALCON. 



day ; and in the county of Norfolk one was known to 

 make a flight at a woodcock, at nearly thirty miles 

 in an hour. A still more remarkable example is that 

 of a falcon which belonged to Henry IV., king of 

 France, and which, having escaped from Fontainbleau, 

 was found twenty-fours after in Malta, the space thus 

 traversed being not less than 1350 miles, and corre- 

 sponding to a velocity of fifty miles an hour, supposing 

 the bird to have been on wing the whole time. But, 

 as these hawks never fly by night, such a rate of pro- 

 gress would amount to seventy miles an hour, suppos- 

 ing the day to have been at the longest, or to have 

 lasted eighteen hours. It is probable, however, that 

 he neither had so many hours of light in the twenty- 

 four, nor that he was retaken the moment of his arrival, 

 so that we may fairly conclude much less time was 

 occupied in performing such a distant flight. 



The wild gallinidse form the principal food of the 

 peregrine falcon ; and it strikes its prey occasionally 

 with the beak as well as the talons, and on the ground 

 as well as on the wing ; but still its principal habit is 

 that of a wing bird, and it often gives long and very 

 vigorous chace. In their lowest descents they prey 

 much upon partridges, though in their upper haunts 

 they feed more upon the different species of grouse. 

 When on partridge hunting they do not beat the air, 

 as that would be the means of making the prey He 

 close and undiscovered in the herbage. The falcon 

 keeps watch stationed on the top of a hillock, or a 

 low branch of a tree ; and when a covey of partridges 

 rises it dashes across them, and endeavours to strike, 

 which it often does with so much force as to kill the 

 bird, and then doubling instantly, as if knowing what 

 it had accomplished, it seizes it before it reaches the 

 ground. When hunting for partridges its habits are 

 peculiar ; it does not beat the ground and descend 

 upon them, but endeavours to raise them by flying 

 close to the surface, in which case it makes a peculiar 

 sound. It is by no means unlikely, however, that 

 some of those low flights which have been attributed 

 to the peregrine falcon are really those of the harriers 

 or buzzards. 



The gallinaceous birds, from their heavy and 

 lumbering flight, are very easy prey when once 

 on the wing, or when by any means they are once 

 got sight of. They are not, however, the only prey 

 of the peregrine ; for it gives chase to ducks, pigeons, 

 snipes, and other birds which have great command of 

 themselves in the air ; and it will continue in pursuit 

 of these for a considerable number of miles, including 

 doublings, in which last some of them are more dex- 

 terous than the falcon. On these chases the average 

 rate of flight, including doublings, may be estimated 

 at about sixty miles in the hour, or a mile each 

 minute ; but the forward rush of the falcon is pro- 

 bably twice as swift as this. 



Of all the prey at which the peregrine flies, the 

 heron appears to be the hardest to master. This 

 arises in a great measure from the height at which 

 the heron flies, and which renders it very difficult for 

 the falcon to get the sky of him ; and as falcons can do 

 little or nothing to a bird above them, the heron is in 

 perfect safety as long as he can keep uppermost. 

 The heron too can ascend as rapidly on the wind as 

 the falcon can do against it ; and thus, as he makes 

 much more distance on his ascent than if he were 

 against the wind, the attempts of the falcon to gain 

 the sky always throw her to a distance. Even when 

 the falcon does get uppermost, her victory over the 



453 



heron is not so certain as that of most other birds. 

 The heron has still a means of defence, which is not 

 only good for self protection, but also somewhat 

 perilous for the falcon. The immensely long neck of 

 the heron is, during flight, either extended, if the flight 

 is rapid, or folded back on the shoulders, if the bird is 

 gliding on with easy wing ; but the heron can also 

 turn his neck so as to project his bayonet-like bill 

 upward behind the wing, at the same time that he 

 continues his flight. This answers two purposes ; in 

 the first place the head or neck of the heron are the 

 parts at which the falcon strikes, because, though 

 wounded in the wing and brought to the ground, the 

 bill of the heron is so formidable, and he uses it with 

 such dexterous rapidity, that he might defeat or even 

 kill the falcon at close fight, though his wing were 

 crippled. Now the doubling of these parts under the 

 wing secures them from this danger, and the only part 

 at which the falcon can strike with effect is the wing. 

 But to strike at that is also dangerous, because from 

 the position of the head the heron can see exactly 

 the direction in which the falcon is coming, and so 

 receive him on the point of his long and strong bill, 

 as a soldier receives an enemy on the point of his 

 bayonet. This difficulty which the falcon has in 

 mastering the heron, made the hawking of that bird a 

 very choice and even a royal sport in the days of 

 hawking ; and great pains were taken to preserve 

 herons for this purpose. Indeed at close quarters, 

 and when they are on an equality as to level, the 

 heron is nearly a match for even the golden eagle 

 itself, though in absolute power it is a comparatively 

 feeble bird. There is an account given by Colonel 

 Montagu, which is worth quoting in order to show 

 how determinedly the heron will resist, even when 

 subjected to that mutilation which sportsmen some- 

 times practice when they have made up their minds 

 as to which of two contending animals shall certainly 

 have the advantage. A female falcon of a year old, 

 in the possession of Colonel Montagu, which had been 

 taken before it could fly, and thus had had no experi- 

 ence in the killing of any thing but a small bird occa- 

 sionally, was kept a whole day without food. At the 

 expiration of this period, an old male heron was intro- 

 duced into the apartment of which the falcon had 

 free range; but the point of the heron's bill had been 

 previously sawed off. " As soon as the heron was in 

 motion, the falcon, who was also deprived of the 

 means of flight, took post on a stool which was at one 

 end of the room ; and as the heron, regardless of his 

 enemy, traversed the apartment, the falcon motionless 

 kept her eyes fixed on her destined prey, till, after 

 several turns round the room, she judged the heron 

 was sufficiently near to effect her purpose, when she 

 sprang at the head, intending to seize that part with 

 her talons. In this, however, she failed, the stool not 

 having given her sufficient elevation to reach the high 

 erected head of the heron. This failure might pro- 

 bably have cost the falcon her life, had the bill of her 

 antagonist been perfect; for she received a blow on 

 her body that must otherwise have inflicted a severe, 

 if not a mortal, wound from so pointed an instrument 

 urged with such power. Baffled in this attempt, and 

 having received a severe blow, it was conjectured no 

 further attack would be made until the calls of hunger 

 became more urgent. The falcon, however, soon re- 

 gained her station, and it was not long before we per- 

 ceived the heron, regardless of his foe, again pass very 

 near, when the falcon, in a second attempt to seize 



