service of my friend John Dawson Downes, Esq. of Old
Gunton Hill, Suffolk, and who also manages the Heron
Hawks kept by subscription in Norfolk, is (I believe) the
only efficient falconer by profession now remaining ; all the
others whom I remember are either dead or worn out, and
there has been no inducement to younger men to follow the
employment of their forefathers.”
The Peregrine Falcon builds on high rocks on various
parts of the coast, but is more numerous in Scotland than in
England. The eggs are from two to four in number, about
two inches long by one inch and eight lines in breadth,
mottled all over with pale reddish brown. The old Falcons
obtain a plentiful supply of food for themselves and their
young by preying upon the numerous aquatic birds that rear
their young in the same localities. Mr. Selby, in one of his
papers on the Birds observed in the vicinity of St. Abb’s
Head, says, <c that the eyrie of the Peregrine Falcon had
long been established there. A pair of old ones and a pair
of young birds were seen at this visit. I t was from this locality
that the late Mr. Baird of Newbyth usually obtained
his cast of Hawks, for each of which he gave the persons who
undertook the perilous task of scaling the precipice one
guinea. The castings of these birds, Mr. Selby noticed, were
scattered in great profusion upon the tops of the cliffs: those
examined were almost wholly composed of the bones and
feathers of gulls and other aquatic fowl; others were mixed
with the feathers of partridges, and the bones of rabbits and
young hares.”
Falcons, Hawks, and pr6bably most, if not all other birds
of prey, from feeding on birds and animals covered with
feathers or fur, and thus swallowing a quantity of indigestible
matter, relieve themselves by throwing it up in the form of
castings, which are oblong balls, consisting of the feathers or
hair and bones forcibly compressed together.
This habit of reproducing at will from the stomach the
remains of the last meal is common to the Shrikes, the
Swallows, and most of the insectivorous birds which feed on
coleoptera, or those insects possessed of strong and hard external
wing-cases.
In the language of Falconry, the female Peregrine is
exclusively called the Falcon, and on account of her greater
size, power, and courage, is usually flown at Herons and
Ducks: the male Peregrine, being smaller, sometimes
one-third less than the female, is called the Tercel, Tiercel,
and Tiercelet, and is more frequently flown at Partridges,
and sometimes at Magpies. Young Peregrines of the year,
on account of the red tinge of their plumage, are called, the
female, a Red Falcon, and the male, a Red Tiercel, to distinguish
them from older birds, which are called Haggards,
or intermewed Hawks. The Banner of Pennant is a young
female Peregrine, at which age it bears some resemblance to
the true Lanner, Falco lanarius of authors,—a true Falcon
also, but much more rare than the Peregrine, and which probably
has never been killed in this country. Mr. Gould
says he was unable to find a specimen in any collection here,
either public or private, at the time he was desirous of figuring
this species in his Birds of Europe. The true Lanner
is only found in the south and south-eastern parts of Europe.
“ The King of France, Louis X V I, had Banners sent annually
from Malta ; but they were brought from the eastern
countries. I t exceeds the Peregrine Falcon in size, being
intermediate between that and the Gyr-Falcon ; was much
esteemed for flying at the Kite, with which the Peregrine is
hardly able to contend.” The name of Lanner is confined
d 2