LORD LILFORD ON BIRDS IN THE LILFORD AVIARIES. 133 
birds carao into ray possession, and two of them recovered 
sufficiently from their wounds to fly and take Kooks fairly well. 
I have kept a Peregrine Falcon “at hack,” that is to say in 
complete liberty, for many months at Lilford ; this bird lived 
principally upon the top of the house, and came regularly to the 
lure, or to my whistle, as often as I chose to call her. It is curious 
that this bird was the only one of her species that I ever knew to 
pursuo and take a Jackdaw ; she was playing high in the air over 
the house at Lilford, when she suddenly came down with a rush 
at a few Kooks and Daws in the deer-park ; they all took refuge 
in two or three old asli-troes, and the Hawk, mounting like a rocket 
to a high pitch after her first stoop, came down through the top 
branches of one of these trees, and brought a vociferous Daw to 
the ground with her : this is the only instance in which I ever 
saw a Peregrine, wild or trained, take any bird from a tree ; but a 
frequent exception to their general habit of capturing their prey in 
the air is the Waterhen, whose dress no doubt renders it especially 
conspicuous on the water meadows. When the Falcon is bent 
upon this quarry, she glides along the fence-sides at a few feet 
from the ground like a Sparrow Hawk, and the Waterhens, wary 
enough of attacks from above, fall easy victims to these sudden 
and unexpected assaults. AVe always reckon that the first 
appearance of the Peregrine at Lilford in August or September 
is a certain indication of the arrival of the Teal, which does not 
breed to my knowledge in our neighbourhood ; but the wandering 
flocks of Peewits are also no doubt an attraction to these travelling 
Hawks. During my wildfowling expeditions from Corfu, on the 
mainland of Epirus, I was continually very efficiently aided by an 
old female Peregrine ; on first stepping ashore I almost invariably 
saw her at her favourite “stand” on the top of a high black 
poplar tree, whence she had an uninterrupted view over a swampy, 
wooded, and generally more or less flooded valley ; the temporary 
lakes or splashes formed by the flood always held “ fowl ” of some 
sort, and on seeing me attempting to stalk up to them, my winged 
ally would mount high into the air and thereby make the Ducks 
“keep small” or try to conceal themselves, thus enabling me to 
put in many a right and left This Hawk always went at Teal in 
preference to Mallards, Gadwalls, Shovellers, Pintails, or Wigeon, 
and her first stoop was almost always successful ; if not, I generally 
