JOHN BARR 347 



Epsom Downs, in the grounds of the Jardin d' Acclimatisation 

 at Paris, and at the Alexandra Palace, near London. It was 

 not, however, during this period that Barr's talents as a sports- 

 man and a falconer had the best scope for their display. In 

 the summer of 1876 he was sent by Captain Dugmore to Nor- 

 way to catch gerfalcons. Here the old talent came out, for 

 though unfamiliar with the country, he came back, after an 

 absence of but eight or nine weeks, with ten fine falcons, and 

 as many goshawks as he cared to bring. At catching a wild 

 hawk or at recovering a lost bird Barr had no rival ; he seemed 

 to know instinctively where the hawk would be, and what she 

 would be about at the time when it suited him to search for 

 her, and somehow or other he generally came back with a 

 hawk on his hand. In 1879 Barr entered the service of Mr. 

 Evans, of Sawston, Cambridgeshire, and in 1880, after having 

 successfully trained and flown some passage hawks at rooks in 

 the spring of that year, he died at the age of thirty-nine. As 

 skilful in the mews as he was in the field, and that is no light 

 word, it will be many years before such another falconer is 

 found to ensure success to the sport of which he was so ardent 

 a lover. 



With the Barrs and Ballantyne the ancient line of Scotch 

 falconers seems to have died out, and though many an in- 

 telligent ghillie and keeper has shown an aptitude for the 

 science, and, with the opportunities at their disposal, might 

 soon have developed into falconers, yet, for the first time we 

 believe in the history of sport, there is at the present time no 

 Scotch falconer of note now practising the art. 



The Scotch school was, as we have previously said, always 

 the exponent of the management of eyesses and of game hawk- 

 ing. For many years, therefore, the Englishmen who cultivated 

 the higher flights at the rook, the heron, and the kite, with 

 passage hawks, were dependent upon the Dutch falconers for 

 their servants. We are indebted to Professor Schlegel's ' Traite 

 de Fauconnerie ' for an account of the more celebrated of these 

 clever trainers and managers of hawks. 



