16 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



Adrian Mollen in 1878, was acquired and trained by the Old 

 Hawking Club, and proved a fine performer at rooks. Reference 

 has already been made to the gers brought by John Barr from 

 Norway. Mr. Newcome, who in the treatment of peregrines 

 was excelled by no falconer of modern times, was dissatisfied 

 with the gers which he trained, and found them difficult to keep 

 in condition. 



D'Arcussia, who, of course, had many gers under his charge, 

 declares that their principal excellence was in mounting, whereas 

 in the downward stoop the peregrine might be awarded the palm. 

 This opinion, however, can hardly be reconciled with the more 

 forcible and striking words which he uses in another passage, 

 where he tells us that having trained some gers for partridges 

 he took them out before a company of experts, who, after seeing 

 these hawks fly, were " disgusted with all other hawks." 



Peregrine (Falco peregrinus) 



Female — Length, about 18 inches ; wing, 14 ; tail, 7 ; tarsus, 

 2 \. Male — Length, about 16 inches ; wing, 12 ; tail, 6 ; tarsus, 2. 



In young birds of both sexes the upper plumage is a more 

 or less dark brown, inclining in some individuals to chocolate 

 colour, and in others to black, each feather of the back, wing, 

 and tail coverts tipped with a lighter and more rufous brown. 

 The chin, neck, breast, thighs, and whole under plumage is 

 more or less dull creamy white, streaked plentifully with longi- 

 tudinal blotches of dark brown, which are thin and small at 

 the neck, but become broader and bigger as they approach 

 the lower part of the breast, dying away again towards the 

 vent. The tail is greyish brown on the upper surface, tipped 

 with more or less rufous white, and barred with five or six 

 rather irregular and rather faint bands of darker brown. The 

 under part of the tail is very faint brownish grey, barred with a 

 somewhat darker hue of the same colour. The sides of the 

 head and neck are dull creamy white, streaked with very small 

 dashes and markings of dark brown. On the under side of 

 the eyebrow, passing round the eyelids, is a patch or streak of 

 very dark brown, and a broad streak of the same colour or of 

 black reaches like a moustache from near the back of the upper 

 mandible backwards for an inch. 



The legs, feet, cere, and eyelids vary from light blue-grey to 

 greenish yellow and pale ochre ; beak, light bluish grey, darken- 

 ing to black at the tip; claws — called always by falconers 

 " talons " — black, as in other hawks of all kinds. In the first 



