312 FALCONRY 



Icelanders for the Duke of Leeds, and these were trained at 

 the Loo and entered to herons. One or two were pretty good 

 birds, but upon the whole they did not turn out well. Some 

 of the falcons were entered to hares and took them fairly 

 well. 



In 1839, Mr. E. C. Newcome visited Norway in search of 

 gerfalcons, of which he always had had a high opinion — so 

 much so that, several years before that date, he had systematic- 

 ally issued hand-bills to the captains of whalers sailmg in the 

 North Seas, requesting them to take every opportunity of pro- 

 curing for him birds of that species. Having selected the 

 place most suited to the purpose, he caused huts to be built 

 the following year for the taking of the falcons in the Dutch 

 method, and in digging the foundations for these the men 

 came upon those of the ancient huts which had been used by 

 falconers in bygone days, all knowledge of which, except as an 

 ancient tradition, had perished. In this place he took three 

 gerfalcons, and in the succeeding year the Dutch falconers 

 caught ten or a dozen. All of these birds were trained at the 

 Loo, but out of all the lot only two — a falcon and a tiercel — 

 turned out to be good ones, one being trained by James Bots 

 and one by Adrian Mollen. 



The great fault of gerfalcons, even when they could be 

 induced to persevere at this flight, was that their stoop was 

 so hard that they would either kill or cripple the heron, and 

 this, in the breeding season, when it was important to save 

 every heron, was a serious drawback. Their nature is ever to 

 stoop repeatedly at their quarry, and after they have so 

 knocked it about as to cripple it, then to seize or bind to it. 

 In 1869, John Barr and James Barr, his nephew, were sent to 

 Iceland by the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh for the purpose of 

 procuring gerfalcons. In this they were exceedingly successful, 

 bringing back no less than thirty-three of these magnificent 

 birds.' In the spring of 1870 we had the pleasure of inspect- 



' Naturally great difficulty was experienced in bringing these hawks home. 



