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THE LADIES MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
smaller eagle, with dark brown and white plumage. The Hen-harrier is a 
still smaller bird, but with all the propensities of the eagles. The Kite is 
a beautiful bird and flies remarkably steady, guiding her motions in the 
air by the inflexions of her tail, as a boat is guided through water. Next 
there is the Falcon Gentle, a bird tamed and used in the ancient sport of 
falconry. This sport, which was so much delighted in by our sovereigns 
and nobility in former times, is now almost given up, there being but few 
persons besides the Queens Grand Falconer who keep mews for hawks. 
Several species of the hawk genus were trained to this pastime, the larger 
species for large game, and the smaller and more fleet for partridges and 
other small birds. The chase and capture of the heron by the falcon is, 
though cruel, very interesting. The falconer, with his hooded hawk, 
places himself between the heronry, and the lake or river where the herons 
go to feed. Soon as one takes wing to return home, and when within a 
few hundred yards of the falconer’s station, the hawk is unhooded and 
unslipped from the arm. The hawk soon eyes his prey, and flies in spiral 
circles higher and higher to get above the heron before he makes his 
deadly stoop. The heron, seeing her enemy approach, and visibly alarmed, 
endeavours to rise higher in the air to keep above the assailant. But the 
rapid flight of the latter soon enables him to tower high above his victim ; 
and then, poising himself for a few moments, he takes an unerring aim, 
descends like lightning upon the back of the devoted heron, where he 
fixes both talons and beak, inflicting at once several wounds, and both 
victor and vanquished fall fluttering to the ground together. It sometimes 
happens that the first pounce is so severe that the prey falls stunned to 
the ground, when the hawk quitting his hold immediately returns to the 
perch or arm of the falconer. In hawking partridges, the hawk flies 
directly from the perch, selecting one bird of the covey, which by one 
blow he tumbles stupified to the earth, and if well trained, returns 
instantly to the lure. 
The next to be noticed is the Hobby, or Tree Falcon. These handsome 
birds are frequently seen hovering over, or perched in, lofty woods; they 
soar in circles like the kite, but do not appear to have half the vigilance 
of other hawks. The common Buzzard is a much larger bird than the 
hobby, and preys chiefly on mice, young rabbits, and hares ; as its heavy 
and indolent motions unfit it for any kind of pursuit. The Spotted 
Buzzard is as large as the last, that is, about twenty-two inches in length 
from the point of the beak to the end of the tail, but is not so plentiful. 
The next is a beautiful little hawk called the Kestril; it is rather plentiful, 
breeding in thick woods, and it lives chiefly on mice and the callow young 
of birds. The Hanner Hawk inhabits unfrequented parts of the country, 
