THE FALCON KIND. 



485 



purpose of pursuing that which is wild. At 

 that he flies with avidity ; and when he has 

 seized it, or killed it, he is brought back by the 

 voice and the lure. 



By this method of instruction, an hawk may 

 be taught to fly at any game whatsoever ; but 

 falconers have chiefly confined their pursuit 

 only to such ani-nals as yield them profit by 

 the capture, or pleasure in the pursuit. The 

 hare, the partridge, and the quail, repay the 

 trouble of taking them ; but the most delight- 

 ful sport is the falcon's pursuit of the heron, 

 the kite, or the wood-lark. Instead of flying 

 directly forward, as some other birds do, these, 

 when they see themselves threatened by the 

 approach of the hawk, immediately take to 

 the skies. They fly almost perpendicularly 

 upward, while their ardent pursuer keeps pace 

 with their flight, and tries to rise above them. 

 Thus both diminish by degrees from the gazing 

 spectator below, till they are quite lost in the 

 clouds ; but they are soon seen descending, 

 struggling together, and using every effort on 

 both sides ; the one of rapacious insult, the 

 other of desperate defence. The unequal com- 

 bat is soon at an end ; the falcon comes off 

 victorious, and the other, killed or disabled, 

 is made a prey either to the bird or the sports- 

 man. 



As for other birds, they are not so much 

 pur-sued, as they generally fly straight forward, 

 by which the sportsman loses sight of the chase, 

 and, what is still worse, runs a chance of 

 losing his falcon also. The pursuit of the lark 

 by a couple of merlins is considered, to him 

 only who regards the sagacity of the chase, as 

 one of the most delightful spectacles this ex- 

 ercise can afford. The amusement is to see 

 one of the merlins climbing to get the ascend- 

 ant of the lark, while the other, lying low for 

 the best advantage, waits the success of its 

 companion's efforts ; thus while the one stoops 

 to strike its prey, the other seizes it at its com- 

 ing down. 



Such are the natural and acquired habits of 

 these birds, which of all others have the great- 

 est strength and courage relative to their size. 

 While the kite or the goss-hawk approach their 

 prey sideways, these dart perpendicularly, in 

 their wild state, upon their game, and devour 

 it on the spot, or carry it oft", if not too large 

 for their powerof flying. They are sometimes 

 seen descending perpendicularly from t!;e 



clouds, from an amazing height, and darting 

 down on their prey with inevitable swiftness 

 and destruction. 



The more ignoble race of birds make up by 

 cunning and assiduity what these claim by 

 force and celerity. Being less courageous, 

 they are more patient ; and, having less swift- 

 ness, they are better skilled at taking their 

 prey by surprise. The kite, that may be dis- 

 tinguished from all the rest of this tribe by his 

 forky tail and his slow floating motion, seems 

 almost for ever upon the wing. He appears 

 to rest himself upon the bosom of the air, and 

 not to make the smallest effort in flying. He 

 lives only upon accidental carnage, as almost 

 every bird in the air is able to make good its 

 retreat against him. He may be therefore 

 considered as an insidious thief, who only 

 prowls about, and, when he finds a small bird 

 wounded, or a young chicken strayed too far 

 from the mother, instantly seizes the hour of 

 calamity, and, like a famished glutton, is sure 

 to show no mercy. His hunger, indeed, often 

 urges him to acts of seeming desperation. I 

 have seen one of them fly round and round for 

 a while to mark a clutch of chickens, and then 

 on a sudden dart like lightning upon the unre- 

 sisting little animal, and carry it off, the hen in 

 vain crying out, and the boys hooting and 

 casting stones to scare it from its plunder. 

 For this reason, of all birds the kite is the 

 good housewife's greatest tormentor and aver- 

 sion. 



Of all obscene birds, the kite is the best 

 known ; but the buzzard among us is the 

 most plenty. He is a sluggish inactive bird, 

 and often remains perched whole days together 

 upon the same bough. He is rather an assassin 

 than a pursuer; and lives more upon frogs, 

 mice, and insects, which he can easily seize, 

 than upon birds which he is obliged to follow. 

 He lives in summer by robbing the nests of 

 other birds, and sucking their eggs, and more 

 resembles the owl kind in his countenance 

 than any other rapacious bird of day. His 

 figure implies the stupidity of his disposition ; 

 and so little is he capable of instruction from 

 man, that it is common to a proverb to call 

 one who cannot be taught, or continues obsti- 

 nately ignorant, a buzzard. The honey-buz- 

 zard, the moor-buzzard, and the hen-harrier, 

 are all of this stupid tribe, and differ chiefly 

 in their size, growing less in the order I have 



4B* 



