278 FALCONRY 



on eyess falcons : ' But leaving to speak any more of these kinde 

 of scratching hawks, that I did never love should come too 

 neere my fingers, and to returne unto the curteous and faire 

 conditioned haggard faulcon whose gallant disposition I know 

 not how to extoll or praise so sufficiently as she deserves.' 



What the falconers of ancient days thus recorded is 

 abundantly confirmed by the practice of their successors in 

 modern times. The passage hawk, as every wild-caught 

 peregrine is termed, with the distinction of ' haggard ' when 

 she is captured in the mature plumage — perhaps aged several 

 years — has proved herself, in our own experience, the superior 

 to the eyess in every kind of flight to which the peregrine can 

 be put. But, moreover, there are many flights such as those 

 at the heron and the rook, for which the passage hawk alone 

 is well adapted, and of which the eyess, as a rule, is not capable. 

 It is true that there have been many eyesses which have been < 

 fdrly good rook hawks — in one or two instances they have 

 even taken the heron ' on the passage,' but such hawks were ■ 

 exceptional ones. 



To obtain a team of, say, six good hawks that would take 

 the heron, or even the rook, in the rough "winds of March as 

 he passes to and from his feeding-grounds, it would be neces- 

 sary to train and test at least twenty eyesses ; but a better 

 result would be obtained from the training, in experienced 

 hands, of ten well-caught passage falcons. And, again, even if 

 the trainer of the eyesses were to succeed in producing hawks 

 that took rooks or herons fairly well, he could never hope that 

 they would emulate the style and dash with which their wild- 

 bred congeners accomplished the feat ; nor, above all, would he 

 be as independent of weather as are those who use the hardy 

 passage hawk, which seems to glory in a gale and laugh at the 

 bitterness of the north-east wind. 



For game hawking the passage hawk requires both time 

 and careful training, and here, perhaps because of the diflSculty 

 of managing the wild-caught hawk, the eyess holds her own. 

 Yet even when the best possible eyesses are being flown — 



