242 FALCONRY 



management and good entering were essential, but where very 

 high training was not required. 



In the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica ' Col. Delme Ratcliffe, a 

 falconer second to none, states it as his opinion that eyesses, 

 or nestling hawks, have been far better managed in the nine- 

 teenth century than they were in the middle ages. Whether 

 this be so or not we cannot tell ; certainly if hacking such hawks 

 was not formerly practised, this would be the case, but we are 

 disposed to think that this practice was generally followed by the 

 old falconers in Scotland and the north of England, where 

 falcons could easily be procured from the nest, and that the 

 good sport which they appear to have enjoyed was shown by 

 eyess falcons which can hardly have been without hack. At 

 any rate, he has placed upon record his opinion that the 

 falconers of the present time have learnt to manage their hawks 

 better than their ancestors were able to do, and we believe 

 that he is perfectly correct in this view. 



The hawks which are used in falconry in the present day 

 are of various kinds, and are divided into two great varieties. 

 First, the true falcons, or long-winged hawks ; secondly, the 

 short-winged, or true hawks. 



In ' Falconry in the British Isles ' we find the following 

 excellent definition of the two varieties : 



The falcons or long- winged hawks are distinguished from the 

 true or short-winged hawks by three never-failing characteristics, 

 viz. by the tooth on the upper mandible (this in some of the foreign 

 species is doubled), by the second feather of the wing being either 

 the longest or equal in length to the third, 1 and by the colour of 

 the irides, dark in the case of the falcons, yellow in that of the 

 hawks. 



Falconers will, however, find many more differences be- 

 tween the two species than are here described ; for their whole 

 nature is different, and so, consequently, is their mode of flight. 



1 In the short-winged hawks the fourth is the longest feather in the wing. 

 The tail and also the legs are far longer than in the falcon, and the foot more 

 powerful. 



