many years in catching hares, rabbits, &c. I t came from
Iceland.*
In reference to keeping this rare species from year to year,
Sir John Sebright, in his Observations on Hawking, says —
“ As it is difficult to procure Icelanders and Gyr-Falcons,
these valuable birds are well worth mewing (putting to
moult) ; but as Peregrine Falcons and Goshawks are easily
obtained, much trouble and expense will be saved by getting
young birds every year ; and as these do not east their wing
and tail-feathers the first year, they will be in order to fly in
the autumn, when the older birds will be in moult.” When
kept for flying over their moult, they are then called Inter-
mewed Hawks.
The Peregrine Falcon being much more numerous as a
species, and much more easily procured, was more particularly
the object of the falconer’s care and tuition ; and in the
history of that bird, which follows next in the series, a few
observations on the powers of flight and the mode of using
^ the Falcons will be introduced.
From the great strength and courage of the Gyr-Falcon,
it was usual to fly them at birds of large size ; such as Cranes,
Storks, Herons, and Wild Geese.
The Gyr-Falcon is said to build annually on the rocky
coasts of Norway and Iceland. Two eggs in my own collection
I believe to belong to this species : the length is two
inches and three-eighths, the transverse measurement one
inch seven-eighths ; both are mottled nearly all over with
pale reddish brown on a dull white ground; they are larger
than those of the Peregrine Falcon, but very similar in
shape and colour, as well as in the mode in which the colour
is disposed over the surface.
These birds defend their young with great courage and
* G. T. Fox, Esq. Synopsis of the Newcastle Museum, p. 52.
perseverance. Dr. Richardson says, “ In the middle of
June 1821, a pair of these birds attacked me as I was climbing
in the vicinity of their nest, which was built on a lofty
precipice on the borders of Point Lake, in latitude 65^°.
They flew in circles, uttering loud and harsh screams, and
alternately stooping with such velocity, that their motion
through the air produced a loud rushing noise : they struck
their claws within an inch or two of my head. I endeavoured
by keeping the barrel of my gun close to my cheek,
and suddenly elevating its muzzle when they were in the act
of striking, to ascertain whether they had the power of instantaneously
changing the direction of their rapid course,
and found that they invariably rose above the obstacle with
the quickness of thought, showing equal acuteness of vision
and power of motion. Although their flight was much more
rapid, they bore considerable resemblance to the Snowy
Owl.”
This species appears but very seldom in .the southern
parts of the British Islands. Dr. Edward Moore of Plymouth
has recorded a notice of one taken in Devonshire so
lately as the year 1834. Dr. Borlase, in his History of
Cornwall, refers to the occurrence of one at Helston. The
bird from which the representation here given was made, was
killed in Pembrokeshire, on the estate of the Earl of Cawdor,
by whom the specimen was presented to the Zoological
Society. In Ireland, as I learn from Mr. Thompson, the
only notice of the occurrence of the Gyr-Falcon is the following
from the MS. of the late Mr. Templeton: “ In 1803
I received the skin of a bird of this species, which had been
shot at Randalston, in the county of Antrim.”
In a Catalogue of the Birds of Norfolk and Suffolk, by
Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, published in the fifteenth
volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society, mention