164 WILD LIFE IN CHINA 



to a truth which all field naturalists will gladly echo: "If 

 painters, engravers, and preservers of animals, would 

 endeavour to get lessons from nature, and work accordingly, 

 the public would not be so often duped as they are." Refer- 

 ence to one after another of books on birds only serves to 

 show how very much has been borrowed by one from the 

 other. To a naturalist who had the time and the opportunity, 

 a careful search through volumes of "The Field," "Country 

 Life," and similar papers would discover a vast collection of 

 natural history notes whose mere existence shows more than 

 ordinary observing power and love of nature on the part of 

 the writers. These might be used as new illustrations of an 

 up to-date book. 



There is some difference of opinion even now as to the 

 exact manner in which the peregrine strikes his prey in the 

 air. Some think that it is shock and nothing else which sends 

 a duck dead to the ground. Others declare that this is unlikely 

 if not impossible, since the striker must feel the blow as much 

 as the one struck. There is on record, however, an instance 

 of a peregrine swooping through the glass roof of an aviary 

 with terrible effect inside but with no harm to himself. The 

 fact that several birds may be struck in the same flock, 

 ducks or rooks, for example, seems to show that if the first 

 blow is due simply to momentum, the others need 

 something more, and the truth probably is that both 

 methods are used, the body blow, and the blow with the 

 claws as the second and subsequent swoops are made. 

 Small prey is simply clutched and carried off. The bill is 

 never used in killing. It is not often, probably, that falcons 

 make mistakes in their swoop, but instances are on record 

 where they have done so, the blow having been delayed too 

 long. A woodcock, for example, being too close to a tree 

 trunk is struck at through the branches with the result that 

 both attacker and quarry are dashed against the bole. 

 Similarly, when swooping at prey on the ground collision 

 occasionally occurs with a piece of rock or stone which served 

 partially to shelter the animal attacked. 



The rule as to number of young seems to be that none 

 of the falcon family ever produces more than four in a season, 

 and the number is frequently less. Some of the birds used 

 in hawking are taken from the nest and brought up by hand, 

 others are caught in nets or snares. Morris's " British Birds" 

 tells of a peregrine which fora while made its home on St. 

 Paul's Cathedral, and was seen to seize pigeons in Leicester 

 Square. 



