Peregrine falcon

“ Perhaps its diminutive size, causing it to be soon lost to view, and a limited acquaintance with the flight of the wild peregrine falcon, have led to the mistake.
The hobby is far swifter than the merlin, but cannot be said to be efficient in the field; it may be trained to wait on beautifully, and will sometimes take larks; it is very much given to the fault of “carrying.”
The three great northern falcons are not easy to procure in proper condition for training. They are very difficult to break to the hood and to manage in the field. ”

“ I IN the little black sentry-box where I pass the night there are two or three books belonging to its more permanent occupant. One of them is a British Bird book, and so last night when I got to bed I turned up the peregrine falcon. The author finds it the most infallible of all the hawk and eagle tribe; the one that least often misses its prey, and never attempts more than it is capable of performing. ”

“ In consequence of the great rage for game-preserving which obtains in the present day, it does not seem unlikely that the peregrine falcon may, in time, be as thoroughly exterminated in Scotland and Ireland as the goshawk has already been. At present, however, falconers find no difficulty in procuring these birds, if they are willing to pay for them. In a selfish point of view, therefore, they have nothing of which to complain. ”

“ One strange habit of the Peregrine Falcon must not be passed over without notice—namely, that at the very first attack made upon it by even the most insignificant and cowardly of feathered assailants, it will at once throw down its prey, or even allow it to be seized and carried off by foes of so timid a character that a spirited clucking hen might drive them from the spot. ”

“ Harold paid them little attention, but made straight across the curve towards the opposite headland, where the cliff seemed almost to beetle over, and where the shadow, as they had been rowing eastwards and it was still morning, lay heavy and black over the water. Here, he knew, the peregrine falcon built its nest nearly every year: for the nest could only be reached from the sea, and no hardy climber had as yet attempted to get at it by that way. Once the male bird had been shot, and for two or three years no nest had been built ”

“ It is common in the centre and north of Western Europe, as well as in the islands of the Mediterranean. It also inhabits North America, where it is frequently called the Chicken-eater.
The flight of the Peregrine Falcon is wonderfully rapid. One 611 of these birds having escaped from the falconry of Henri II., it is said that it performed the whole distance from Fontainebleau to Malta in one day, over three hundred leagues. It hovers in the air with graceful facility, and when it marks a victim, darts upon it with extraordinary rapidity, courage, and ferocity. ”

“ A heron found at his feeding-place at a brook or pond affords no sport whatever. If there be little water any peregrine falcon that will go straight at him will seize him soon after he rises. It is sometimes advisable to fly a young falcon at a heron so found, but it should not be repeated. If there be much water the heron will neither show sport nor be captured. It is quite a different affair when he is sighted winging his way at a height in the air over an open tract of country free from water. ”

“ The kestrel leans on the wind, the sparrowhawk (I am referring to those that hunt in the open) dashes down wind, swings up, poises, then dashes down at his prey. The peregrine falcon hangs high above the cliff slope or the inland fields. He and his mate, hunting together, are like two black anchor-heads. Even in a considerable wind they are not disturbed. They remain fixed till something is seen, and then they fall, head first, swifter and swifter, plunging at an enormous rate. ”

“ I do not know, however, if a capercailzie would not beat him if you could get them both to take a long flight across the open, because, generally speaking, in the case of birds of similar shape and species, the heaviest bird is the fastest flying one.”
Captain G. S. Blaine, another falconer of long and varied experience, has also been so kind as to give me his opinion on this question. He writes:
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“I cannot say whether a peregrine falcon could overtake and kill a swift, but I do not think it would ever attempt the feat. Falcons do not, as a rule, attack small birds. ”

“ When he has flown some eighty yards the peregrine is unhooded and let go after him. She at once flies upwards, and in a few seconds is above the crow, who, seeing her, drops to the ground and lies there on his back prepared to show fight. The falcon stoops at him, but seems to be afraid to tackle him on the ground. The falconer then runs up to him and tries to make him get up; but he refuses, so he is picked up and thrown into the air. The falcon at once stoops at him, but before she reaches him the crow has again dropped to the ground, and still the falcon refuses to close with him. ”

“ But upon the Continent the Shrike appears to have rendered a more important service to the falconer, than the capture of small birds, even the capture of the higher kinds of Falcons themselves. Sir John Sebright informs us that the Peregrine Falcon is taken by placing in a favourable situation a small bow-net, so arranged as to be drawn over quickly by a long string that is attached to it. A pigeon of a light colour is tied on the ground as a bait, and the falconer is concealed, at a convenient distance, in a hut made of turf, to which the string reaches. ”

“ An old friend of mine, who is head stalker in one of our best-known deer forests and whose veracity I have every reason to accept, told me an interesting story which further illustrates what fine feats in the air the peregrine falcon can perform. ”

“ Simply to tame a hawk is excessively easy. To train it, up to a certain point, is not at all difficult. But it requires an old and practised hand to produce a bird of first-rate excellence.
The modern routine of training the peregrine falcon is shortly as follows: Young birds are procured, generally from Scotland, either just before they can fly, or just after. ”

“ He is peculiarly adapted to the wilds of Iceland, and the cold, naked cliffs of the Northern Isles. Though not often seen, there is no reason to believe their numbers are as small as might be supposed. They are no parasites, like the skua gull. Not they. They catch their prey alive and on the wing; and so terrible and unerring is their flight, that nothing can escape them. Except his near relative, the peregrine falcon, there is probably not a bird in the world that can equal his speed on the wing. ”

“ There were many kinds of birds in use; and, though this chapter is headed by the term now best known in connection with the sport, the Elizabethan never lost sight of the distinction between the short-winged "hawk" and the long-winged "falcon." The "falcon towering in her pride of place" is a higher order of animal than a "fine hawk for a bush." It is scarcely necessary to enumerate here the different varieties of birds in use for hunting save to say that the female peregrine falcon has given her name to the art of falconry ”

“ The following is an outline of the process of training hawks, beginning with the management of a wild-caught peregrine falcon. When first taken, a rufter hood should be put on her head, and she must be furnished with jesses, swivel, leash and bell. A thick glove or rather gauntlet must be worn on the left hand (Eastern falconers always carry a hawk on the right) , and she must be carried about as much as possible, late into the night, every day, being constantly stroked with a bird’s wing or feather, very lightly at first. ”

“ A peregrine falcon will have difficulty catching a pigeon during a level chase at 60 miles per hour, but this predator can probably exceed 200 miles per hour during a swoop from a greater height onto its prey. ”

“ Birds of prey are to a greater or lesser extent specialists; while quite ready to devour any small bird, reptile, or mammal which comes their way, they lay themselves out more especially to catch one particular species, and if that species migrates it follows that the bird that preys upon it will also migrate. Thus the peregrine falcon lays itself out to catch ducks and naturally goes with them to their breeding grounds, just as the hawker of cheap wares, who preys upon the mem-sahib, follows her to the hills in the summer. ”

“ The female is an inch or two taller than the male, and of more massive build, and in olden times, when falconry was the fashion and the Peregrine was the favourite of kings, she was called the Falcon and her less powerful mate the Tiercel, because he is, roughly, one-third smaller. We found this dominance of the female a marked feature of their domestic life, so that suffragettes could not choose a bird more suited to them as a totem, for the Falcon is nearly always away hunting, while the Tiercel stays at home and minds the babies. ”

“ My friend, Smith Whiting, whose bird photographs are a joy to all his intimates, holds strong views against the publication of any accounts of rare birds, as this, in his experience, only serves to betray them to egg-collectors, who really, in their lust for the eggs of such, seem to be born stamp-collectors who have, unfortunately, missed their true vocation. I do so, however, in the hope that my narrative may raise new friends for the Peregrine Falcon and other rare birds, and so lead to their better protection. ”

“ Now that the Sea Eagle and the Osprey are extinct, mainly through the depredations of egg-collectors, and the Golden Eagle is only tolerated in parts of Scotland where sportsmen find the bird useful in thinning down the grouse and hares that interfere with deer-stalking, the Peregrine Falcon is the grandest bird of prey we have left in England. ”

“ The wide-ranging peregrine falcon is a common species in La Plata, although, oddly enough, not included in any notice of the avifauna of that region before 1888. The consternation caused among birds by its appearance is vastly greater than that produced by any of the raptors I have mentioned: and it is unquestionably very much more destructive to birds, since it preys exclusively on them, and, as a rule, merely picks the flesh from the head and neck, and leaves the untouched body to its jackal, the carrion-hawk. ”

“ It is, however, of course, possible to capture her either in early autumn before the migration has commenced—in which case a peregrine is more properly called a slight falcon or slight tiercel—or late in the winter, when she has become a lantiner, or in the spring migration, when she is travelling north. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Just as I am despairing, about 9 p.m., of anything further taking place, I hear a great flapping of wings and, looking out, find all the young in the eyrie gazing eagerly seawards, whimpering and flapping their wings. Then suddenly the whimpering grows louder, the wing-flapping more frantic, and for a moment I catch sight of the Falcon standing on B, holding a gory something in her beak, with two little red legs dangling from it—the headless trunk of a puffin. ”

“ At 4.50 a.m, the Falcon is calling the long-drawn-out, gull-like food cry, to which he immediately replies with the same cry and flies out to meet her. She transfers the quarry from her talons to his in the air. He brings it in, a song thrush, an adult, and quite intact, head and all. He feeds the young with it, occasionally swallowing a piece himself. He is very careful to pick up any morsel that misses a youngster's beak and drops into the eyrie and carefully offers it again. He holds the quarry firmly under one foot and tears pieces off with his beak. ”

“ None of the eagles of Europe seem to cross the great inland sea, or perform regular migrations. The osprey and peregrine falcon wander over the south of Europe and north Africa in increased numbers during the winter months. Flocks of honey-buzzards, orange-legged falcons, and lesser kestrels, together with numbers of marsh harriers, kestrels, sparrow-hawks, and in a less proportion the hobby, merlin, and Montagu's and Swainson's harriers, follow the migratory birds to and from Africa—some in hot pursuit of the warblers and quail, which they feed on when they cannot procure more choice food. ”

“ Moreover, the Falcon, whether actuated by hatred of man or not, showed me her version of the hunger strike, a fearsome thing as watched by mere man with one eye on his own future, for in the avian version it is the husband and helpless young that do the starving. What makes me believe that what I saw is the natural habit of the Peregrine is that in this crisis the Tiercel, though evidently anxious to feed the young, never attempted to do any hunting himself, although there were plenty of birds about. ”

“ The Falcon flew off as we approached the eyrie, and immediately started calling the alarm as she circled overhead. Her harsh cry seemed to me to be more like "aitch, aitch, aitch" than the "kek, kek, kek" of the books. I never could tell them apart when flying, but when together it is plain that the Tiercel is smaller and his alarm note different and rather higher in pitch. Their flight consisted of a series of rather laboured beats followed by glides on outspread wings. The young formed a round heap like a pancake raised in the middle. Before we disturbed them there was only one head visible. ”