138 
BIRD-LIFE. 
the grain, but rather with pleasure and exultation, and is 
passionately devoted to the chase, not on her own 
account, however, but for her master’s,—exactly as is the 
dog. The Chinese Cormorant (Phalacrocorax sinensis) has 
to catch fish for the cunning “Celestial:” its master, 
however, takes care to put a ring round its neck, so as to 
prevent the same from being swallowed.* The Falcon, 
however, is perfectly free, and brings the captured booty 
to her master, without helping herself to the smallest 
portion. Such conduct can only be accomplished by 
cultivated reason exercising undisputed sway over natural 
inclination. It is reason which teaches a good Falcon the 
ways and means necessary to attack and overcome animals, 
which hitherto she has never molested. The migratory 
Falcons of Northern Africa (Falco peregrinoides and F. barmi - 
acus), which are used for the chase by the Bedouins of the 
desert, stoop at the head of the antelope, and by scream¬ 
ing and flapping their wings so terrify the creature as to 
detain it until the hounds come up to finish the work. 
The Hobby Hawk, so celebrated in the story of the 
Emperor Frederick, was trained by a Swiss monk to such 
perfection as to strike wild Geese. The bird always struck 
at the Goose’s neck, where it held on and severed the 
jugular vein, which naturally caused its prey to bleed to 
death, and then fall to the ground. We ought not to be 
astonished when we read, that in olden times as much as 
a thousand florins have been paid for a well-trained 
Falcon; or that Philip Augustus in vain offered the 
Turks a thousand gold pieces as a ransom for his 
favourite Falcon, which had escaped during the siege of 
Akkon; neither need it appear so very shocking to us 
that the Bedouin should give utterance to the following 
* Recent travellers do not confirm this statement. 
