FALCON AND TIERCEL. 173 



victim, and upon a more careful examination 

 perceived the name and address of her owner ; 

 and while affording him the only reparation in 

 his power by sending him her remains and the 

 account of her fate, he unconsciously rendered 

 the story worthy of record in a sporting and an 

 ornithological point of view; for upon a subse- 

 quent comparison of dates it was found that she 

 had been shot near Aberdeen, on the eastern coast 

 of Scotland, within forty-eight hours after she 

 had been flown at the woodcock in a central part 

 of the province of Ulster in Ireland. 



Colonel Bonham has known as many as fifty 

 woodcocks procured in the same season by one 

 peregrine. A much greater number had, of course, 

 been killed by her, but it is advisable to leave 

 the hawk in undisputed possession of her prize 

 occasionally, or she would soon acquire the bad 

 habit of carrying it off on the approach of the 

 falconer, as however great may be the attractions 

 of the lure, they are far surpassed by those of the 

 natural prey which she has obtained by her own 

 unassisted powers. 



In all raptorial birds the female is larger and 

 more powerful than the male, and in this species 

 is styled the falcon, par excellence, the male the 

 tiercel. It is not advisable to fly two hawks of 

 the same sex at once, but a falcon and tiercel 



