4G6 



FALCON. 



whereas, if any animal is seized and killed by one of 

 the feline or clutching- race, no matter for the species, 

 it will invariably be found to be mangled. Those 

 coincidences between animals of diH'erent classes, in 

 respect of their modes of action, are among the most 

 interesting points in natural history, because they 

 give us two lassons of the utmost value the one for 

 our instruction in a scientific, and the other in a 

 moral point of view. In the first place, they clearly 

 demonstrate, that if we once properly get hold of a 

 principle, and follow it out into its details, so as to 

 see everything respecting organisation, locality, and 

 habits, we can proceed by analogy from these, and 

 greatly abridge the labour of acquiring a knowledge 

 of other parts of the system. In the second place, 

 they demonstrate, that the law of nature is one, that 

 purpose and adaptation run uniformly through the 

 whole creation, and that therefore the Author and 

 Governor is one. 



It is not very easy to give, in few words, such a 

 generalisation of the action of these birds as can be 

 considered popular, and yet it is so much connected 

 with the action of animals generally, and with that of 

 feathered animals in particular, that every body 

 should understand something about it. It may, in 

 general, be said that the falcons, and birds which are 

 winded and feathered like the falcons, are capable of 

 making the greatest possible use of the air, while the 

 air has the least possible effect upon them ; and that 

 the hawks, and birds winged and feathered like the 

 hawks, are always in so far at the disposal of the 

 wind, though loss so than the majority of those birds 

 on which they feed, otherwise there would be no food 

 for the hawks, unless what they could get by stra- 

 tagem and lying in wait, as is done by the greater 

 majority of the owls. 



As the air has comparatively little hold upon 

 either the wings or the feathers of the falcons, they 

 can keep their intended course with much less labour 

 and more certainty than those birds whose wings and 

 feathers take hold of the wind. This, however, pre- 

 vents them from being able to wheel and double so 

 quickly or within so small a compass as the others, 

 and therefore they can be effective only in situations 

 where they have scope for their wings. In the free 

 expanse of the air, however, they have advantages 

 which no other birds possess, and thus the wing of 

 the falcon may, in its proper element, be said to 

 triumph over every other wing. No bird that rises 

 down the wind can gain much additional height 

 without beinjf carried to a very considerable distance 

 in the direction in which the wind blows ; and no 

 bird upon whose feathers, whether those of the wings 

 or the body, the wind takes a powerful hold, can 

 fly across the wind without making a good deal of 

 leeway, and being thrown out of any aim which it 

 may have taken, while the hold which the peculiar 

 texture of its feathers takes on the matter of the at- 

 mosphere must tend very much to retard its motion 

 even when the air is still. But all these circum- 

 stances, disadvantageous as they are in forward 

 flight in the free air, are of use to the short-winged 

 birds in the way in which they in general act. Such 

 of thorn as look out for ground prey can, by this 

 means, float and hover till they have scoured the 

 whole of an extensive horizon ; while those which 

 prey in the woods and among bushes, can turn and 

 glide, so as to come upon their prey with greater 

 ease. They are also muffled, as it were, by the 



formation'of the margins and surfaces of their feathers, 

 and thus they can range in comparative silence 

 those places where the sound of the firm wings of the 

 falcon would give instant warning of her approach. 

 Thus, in the free air over the wild, nothing which she 

 marks out as her prey can escape the bold pursuit of 

 the falcon, though there are many birds that in such 

 places can defy the hawk. On the other hand, when 

 the range is interrupted, or the bird flies low and 

 doubles, the hawk can keep sight of it and wear it 

 out, when all the strength, force, and rush of the 

 falcon would be quite unavailing. 



In illustration of this, we may mention an instance 

 of the superiority of falconry over hawking in the 

 open plains, which was observed in a remote district 

 of the Scotch Highlands a few years ago by a friend 

 of the writer of this article. It was early in the 

 season, and long before shooting on the moors com- 

 mences, that our friend, in company with a resi- 

 dent veteran of the hill, who knew the habits of every 

 creature that appeared on it, had wandered nearly 

 as far as the water-shed in one of those wide and half- 

 boggy passes, which are so much resorted to by the 

 semi-aquatic birds which breed in the inland wilds. 

 When they had fatigued themselves with the heavy 

 footing through heather, and moss, and long grass, 

 they sat down upon a " a rest-and-bc-thankfnl" stone, 

 to survey the glen, of which the height that they 

 had now gained gave them the command, they ob- 

 served a large light-coloured bird of prey in pursuit 

 of a lapwing, which was doubling about in all the 

 ways that its very hollow wing admits of; and as the 

 wind was from the hill, their progress was, upon the 

 whole, down the glen before it. The falcon, from its 

 apparent size and the whiteness of its colour, was 

 either a full-grown jer, or one of the larger variety of 

 Iceland (if that is a variety) ; but still, what with the 

 doubling, what with the advantage of the wind on the 

 concave wings of the prey, the falcon lost rather than 

 gained, and had it persevered in this kind of chase, 

 the lapwing would have worn it out. After some time 

 spent in this hopeless pursuit, the falcon turned 

 round to windward, in the very opposite direction to 

 that in which chase had been given. Our informant 

 expressed his surprise that a bird of such apparent 

 power should thus abandon her prey. " She will 

 return," said his companion, " or else she is not true 

 either to her colour or her course ; that is not the 

 way in which falcons abandon their game." They 

 watched the course of the falcon, which had risen at 

 a comparatively small angle with the perpendicular, 

 till she seemed no bigger than a lark ; and the lap- 

 wing, alarmed by the pursuit, was still wheeling about 

 in the air at no very great distance. At last the 

 falcon halted and turned, and her wings began to 

 shiver in the air. " Mark now," said the mountaineer, 

 " whether she has or has not abandoned her game." 

 In an instant, she shot downwards with the rush of 

 an arrow ; the lapwing gave one shrilly wail, and 

 appeared to lose all command of its wings ; and in 

 less than a minute they heard the sound of the stroke, 

 and the lapwing fell to the earth, from which it again 

 rebounded by the violence of the fall. They of course 

 left the falcon to enjoy in peace that feast in the 

 obtaining of which she had shown so much science. 



No birds are thrown into greater consternation by 

 the flying of a falcon over them than magpies ; and 

 although this kind of sport makes nothing for the 

 " pot," it shows in what dread the falcon is held. 



