52 THE FALCON AND TERCEL. 



Many of the incidents connected with Duncan's death 

 are not to be found in the narrative of that event, but are 

 taken from the chronicler's account of King Duffe's 

 murder. Among the prodigies there mentioned is the one 

 referred to by Shakespeare. " Monstrous sightes also, 

 that were seene without the Scottishe kingdome that year, 



were these There was a sparhauke also 



strangled by an owle." We have known a Tawny Owl 

 to kill and devour a Kestrel which had been kept in the 

 same aviary with it. 



By " tow'ring in her pride of place," is here understood 

 to mean circling at her highest point of elevation. So in 

 Massinger's play of The Guardian, Act i. Sc. 2 : — 



" Then for an evening flight 

 A tiercel gentle which I call, my masters, 

 As he were sent a messenger to the moon, 

 In such a place, flies, as he seems to say 

 See me or see me not.'' 



By the falcon is always understood the female, as 

 distinguished from the tercel, or male, of the peregrine or 

 goshawk. The latter was probably called the tercel, or 

 tiercel, from being about a third smaller than the falcon. 

 Some authorities, however, state that of the three young 

 birds usually found in the nest of a falcon, two of them are 

 females and the third a male ; hence the name of tercel.* 



* Tardif, " Treatise on Falconry.' 



