162 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



Peregrine will shoot out from Ins station beneath, impatient at the intrusion 

 of a stranger upon his domain, and with an angry bark * will sweep out 

 over the sea, returning landwards again and circling watchfully overhead 

 When we were Woodcock-shooting on Lundy Island, hardly a couple of shots 

 were fired before the party of guns were joined by a Peregrine, and soon 

 alter by a second, and the Hawks kept in close attendance, in the technical 

 phrase of falconry " waiting on" above the sportsmen and their dogs; 

 and when a cock or snipe was flushed, if it was missed, it had next to run 

 the gauntlet of the two birds, who, between them, generally secured it. 

 Sometimes a wounded cock was pounced upon, and carried off right in front 

 of the shooters, to whose guns the Peregrines w^ere sacred, and they seemed 

 to be aware of their immunit}'. There are many instances on record of 

 other raptorial l)irds, besides the Peregrine, accompanying shooting-parties. 

 Their hunting instincts lead them to take an interest in the sport, and they 

 play tlie part of criticizing and sympathizing spectators, or they draw near 

 in the hopes of sharing in the spoil. Col. Montagu tells us that twice, when 

 he was shooting in the Highlands, a Golden Eagle suddenly put in an 

 appearance and carried oft' a wounded Grouse, descending from an adjacent 

 lofty clitf, where it had been curiously observing the actions of the sports- 

 men. Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jnr., while shooting Quails in Egypt, W'as attended 

 by a Short-toed Eagle, which took great interest in his proceedings, until, 

 approaching too near, it was itself biought to bag with a wire-cartridge. 

 Some Lanners, also, were attracted by his shooting. In Ireland the 

 plucky little Merlin will often keep company with the Snipe-shooter on 

 the bogs, to take advantage of the quarry sprung for him. We have 

 already related the audacity of a male Sparrow-Hawk in carrying off our 

 wounded Tiiiu/ce on the sands under our very nose ; and Lord Lilfurd has 

 recorded in ' The Ibis ' for ISGO, p. 8, that a CJos-Hawk stooped at 

 a Woodcock which he had wounded. And, to add yet one more example 

 to a list which might readily be increased, Ilichardson has related that, in 

 the Eur Countries of N. America, he has seen a Snowy Owl watching 

 Grouse- shooters from a high tree and that when a bird was shot the Owl 

 skimmed down and carried it oft' before the sportsmen could come up. 



Mr. W. Prodrick, one of the authors of ' Ealeonry in the British Isles,' 

 at the time he resided at Ilfracombe, kept several trained Peregrines, 

 flying them at Pigeons, and occasionally at Ilooks, Herring-Gulls, and 

 Snipe, on the higli grounds above the town. In spite of their bells and 

 dangling jesses, on more than one occasion they were shot by ignorant 

 people, who flattered themselves they had performed a meritorious act in 

 butchering a Hawk, so that the science of falconry had to be practised 

 under many trials and drawbacks. More Peregrines are seen in the autumn 

 than at any other time of the year, as the young birds are then on passage 

 going south. In a short walk along the north coast of Devon in September 

 1875 we counted no less than Ave Peregrines on wing. These young 

 " Passage Hawks " were considered by falconers, when caught and trained, 



* !Mr. J. Gatcombp well vrrote : — "The erv of the Peregriue at tlie breeding-seascn 

 is the must angry and menacing of any bird I knuw."' 



