52 
THE FALCON AND TERCEL. 
Many of the incidents connected with Duncan’s death 
are not to be found in the narrative of that event, but are 
taken from the chronicler’s account of King Dufle’s 
murder. Among the prodigies there mentioned is the one 
referred to by Shakespeare. “ Monstrous sightes also, 
that were seene without the Scottishe kingdome that year, 
were these.There was a sparhauke also 
strangled by an owle.” We have known a Tawny Owl 
to kill and devour a Kestrel which had been kept in the 
. same aviary with it. 
By “ tow’ring in her pride of place,” is here understood 
to mean circling at her highest point of elevation. So in 
Massinger’s play of The Guardian , Act i. Sc. 2 :— 
“ Then for an evening flight 
A tiercel gentle which I call, my masters, 
As he were sent a messenger to the moon, 
In such a place , flies, as he seems to say 
See me or see me not.” 
By the falcon is always understood the female, as 
distinguished from the tercel, or male, of the peregrine or 
goshawk. The latter was probably called the tercel, or 
tiercel, from being about a third smaller than the falcon. 
Some authorities, however, state that of the three young 
birds usually found in the nest of a falcon, two of them are 
females and the third a male ; hence the name of tercel.* 
* Tardif, “ Treatise on Falconry.” 
