74 HOW I BECAME A FALCONER. 
which I may write my experiences. These are professedly desultory 
chapters, and one had better perhaps wait for the convenience 
of the moment. Things strike one by the way. 
The time is drawing near* when young birds will be flying at hack, 
and faleoners are already making sure of materials to work upon in 
the shape of nestling peregrines. Let me advise beginners—and it 
is for such chiefly that I write—to take every pains that the young 
birds are well and regularly fed from the time they are taken from 
the eyrie till the moment they are placed in the hamper and entrusted 
to the railway. This can, of course, only be done by writing to the 
keepers, or the dealers, into whose hands they at first fall; when 
they reach the falconer he will know what to do with them. Also, 
I would not have them taken too soon; when this is done they are 
subject to cramp, and, if they escape it, they are generally screamers. 
For my own part, I can’t endure a screamer, the jar on one’s nerves 
is too much for me; besides, screaming birds, though always 
courageous, are seldom very high flyers. 
Let me also, in this place, ask any gentleman who owns the land 
on which peregrines breed, or who has control there, to spare the old 
birds. I know I am open to the retort, that the request is almost 
an impertinent one, for that I am asking a man to make what he 
will consider sacrifices in a cause with which ho has no concern. If 
that is said, I am silent because I think myself that every man is 
concerned in affairs of humanity and generosity ; but if itis answered 
that, in consideration of a time-honoured sport, for the sake of those 
glorious birds themselves, or that nature may rule by her own laws, 
for w time, the peregrines shall be spared this year at least, then I 
think that a noble thing has been said, and one which will never 
bring regret with it to the heart of a British sportsman. 
* This was written early in the summer of 1868. 
