PASSAGE HAWKS G 'A ME 305 



caught hawks in an open wild country with a strong swift quarry 

 like the grouse. The fatal word ' lost,' entered against the name 

 of many a good passage hawk in the game book, has prevented 

 her score from reaching that of the steady-going eyess, who is 

 rarely lost, or if lost is very easily recovered after an extra day 

 or so at hack ; but even if the score of killed be not as great in 

 the one case as in the other, the fine style in which the smaller 

 number has been taken will fully balance the account between 

 the two hawks. 



In former years it was supposed that passage hawks were 

 not fit to fly at game till after they had been for a long time in 

 training. As long ago, however, as 1869 we saw passage tiercels 

 waiting on perfectly in February that had been caught in the 

 previous October and had been trained by John Barr. Since 

 that time we have had several hawks that were perfectly steady 

 for magpie hawking in the spring succeeding the autumn in 

 which they were caught, and so lately as 1887 we took a magpie 

 in April with a haggard falcon of the previous November. As a 

 rule any passage hawk that has had a good spring season of work 

 at rooks, &c. may be got up in condition, and after a few pigeons 

 from the hand will wait on as well as any eyess. 



Peregrines differ both in size, colour, and general appearance 

 to an extent so great that it is sometimes almost impossible to 

 believe that they are the same species of hawk. Some falcons 

 of the first year are of a bright reddish cinnamon on the back, 

 the breast being almost all of one rufous shade, blotched with 

 dirty cream-coloured markings. Next to such a bird on the 

 same perch will be perhaps a falcon nearly a third taller, with a 

 rich dark brown back and wing coverts, and her breast and 

 thighs of a bright cream colour regularly marked with very dark 

 brown markings ; the head of such a bird will be nearly black, 

 her thighs very evenly marked, and not a trace of red or 

 cinnamon in her whole body. Other hawks will perhaps be 

 there, all caught on the same passage, of every intermediate 

 shade between these two, some nearly black, others almost the 

 colour of a kestrel. So, too, with the adult birds. One will 



