THE BIRDS USED IN HAWKING 11 



joint of the wing is shorter than in the falcons, the wing deriving 

 its power from the feathers near the body rather than from the 

 outer ones. The beak is longer in shape than that of the other 

 two sorts, and the legs are proportionately stouter. The size of 

 the smallest eagle is very much greater than that of the largest 

 falcon or hawk. 



The differences which exist in the shape of the wing between 

 the three classes will perhaps be best appreciated by a glance 

 at the accompanying illustration, in which a characteristic wing 

 of each kind is figured. 



The French have convenient terms (see Belvallette, Traiti 

 d'Autourserie, Paris, 1887) which express in themselves, with 

 great perspicuity, though perhaps a little exaggeration, the 

 different methods of flying employed by the short- and the long- 

 winged hawks. The latter they describe as ramiers, or rowers, 

 because their mode of progression through the air resembles 

 that of an oarsman, or rather sculler, striking with repeated 

 beats of his sculls ; whilst they describe the short-winged hawks 

 (with eagles and all birds that have rounded wings) as voiliers, 

 or sailers, maintaining that their impulse is gained by the 

 pressure of the air against the wing, upon which it acts as upon 

 a sail. Many people may be inclined to call such a distinction 

 rather fanciful, and even question its truth ; but the mere fact 

 that the two words have been accepted as correctly denoting 

 the two separate styles of flying, shows what a marked difference 

 between them has been generally admitted to exist. It will be 

 seen that the mode of flying the " rowers " and the " sailers " at 

 quarry is also very distinct. 



In accordance with the three-fold classification above sug- 

 gested, I now proceed to mention the various birds used in 

 hawking under the successive headings of — (1) Long -winged 

 hawks ; (2) Short-winged hawks ; and (3) Eagles. 



I. THE LONG-WINGED HAWKS (Falcons) 1 



Perhaps the leading characteristic in the flying of this kind 

 of hawk is that it habitually captures its prey, or, as falconers 



1 It should be observed that although the term falcon has an established meaning 

 among ornithologists as a name for the long-winged hawks, it is used by falconers 

 in quite a different acceptation. In hawking phraseology it is applied, in contra- 

 distinction to the term tiercel, to the female of the larger sorts of long-winged hawks, 

 and especially to the female peregrine. Thus when a falconer is described as being 

 possessed of "two falcons," or a hare is mentioned as having been taken by a 

 " falcon," the reader is expected to know that the female peregrine is referred to, 

 and not a male peregrine, or a saker, lanner, or any other kind of hawk. 



