244 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



a Peregrine Falcon. There is a popular notion and a pretty 

 theory that hawks are " Nature's police ; " that they carry off the 

 weakly birds of a covey, and so, by allowing the strongest and 

 best to escape, they help to maintain a good healthy stock of 

 game. This is an absolute fallacy. Having seen scores of 

 grouse and partridges taken by trained falcons, we are in a 

 position to assert positively that the power of wing in a Peregrine 

 is so great, that it can overtake and strike down the strongest and 

 best bird in a covey with as much ease as if it were the youngest 

 and weakliest of the brood. It would naturally be supposed that 

 on the rising of a covey, the hawk would stoop at the bird nearest 

 to it. This is not invariably the case. We have many times seen 

 a falcon ignore a grouse immediately under her, and single out 

 for capture either the leader of the pack, or an outside bird far 

 ahead of some of its fellows. It is the same in partridge 

 hawking. The hawk probably stoops at the bird of which 

 it first catches sight when the covey rises ; just as in partridge 

 shooting the sportsman singles out the bird he first sees on 

 the wing, unless it happens to be too near him, when he 

 aims at one further away, by which time the bird first seen will be 

 at a proper distance for his second barrel. 



It will be inferred from what has been already stated that the 

 modes of flying a short-winged hawk and a long-winged falcon are 

 entirely different. In the former case the quarry is found before 

 the hawk leaves the fist, in the latter the falcon is put on the wing 

 and allowed to " mount " to a good " pitch " before the dogs are 

 uncoupled and allowed to range. As soon as they are steady on 

 point, and the falcon well placed overhead, the birds are flushed ( 

 and the falcon, immediately catching sight of them, with a 



