21 1. FALCONRY. 



Mr. Robert Gray, in the ' Birds of the West of Scotland,' remarks, 

 p. 28, " Some of the Skye Peregrines are very powerful birds — the males, in 

 many cases, being larger than females from other districts ; " yet in Part II. 

 p. 57, I record how a Corvus comix (the Grey Crow) beat off the Peregrine 

 Falcon. 



The Rev. Richard Lubbock, in his ' Fauna of Norfolk,' p. 31, says, " the 

 L'Estrange Household-book shows how superior the training of the old 

 falconers was ; six rabbits are noted as killed by the Sper-Hawke. Now in 

 these days a Sparrow-Hawk, at the best, can barely take Partridges ; when 

 in full flight these birds are too strong for the Hawk." 



I think the Partridge appears to have increased in strength and numbers, 

 like the Blackbird ; in Skye the former is poor and small at the present 

 time. 



The constant importation of the best blood of other countries must have 

 had a tendency to improve the strain of British Falcons. This went on 

 continually. Mr. Tregonwell Frampton wrote between 1670 and 1680 : — 

 " Send me down by my man the largest and handsomest Hawkes that are 

 brought over in the Russian shipps." Again, the same person. May 1682, 

 speaks of " a beautiful Moscowy Hawke to be parted with. She is every 

 bodis munney, from the marchant she is worth £lO," 



In Burton's ' Falconry of the Indus,' p. 8 et seq., after a fine battle the 

 Laghar (a large kind of Hobby .?) is beaten and nearly killed by the com- 

 panions of the Crow attacked. " ' I never heard of any good coming fi'om 

 these kang ' (Scindee for Crow), said the Ameer, as we slowly retraced our 

 way towards the encampment ; ' one of them, I am sure, killed my poor 

 brother at Meeanee. All the night a huge black crow sat upon the apple 

 of his tent-pole, predicting the direst disasters to him. V^'e drove away 

 the beast of ill omen half a dozen times ; still he would return.' " 



Fear regarding Crows and Ravens is noticed by Shakespeare. But 

 superstition is now fast waning from the minds of men, and the time is 

 different from that when Bruce's spider decided the fate of a kingdom, or 



