The NOBLE FALCONS (Falcones) are in every respect the most perfectly organised members of the group to which they belong; both as regards their strength and skill, and the perfection in which they display the characteristics peculiar to their race, they stand supreme. In these noble birds, as they are justly called, the body is very compact, the head moderate, the neck short, the wings long and pointed, the second and occasionally the third quill being longer than the rest. The beak is short but powerful, very decidedly arched at its base, hooked at the extremity, and furnished near its apex with a more or less highly developed tooth; the lower mandible is sharp at its edge, and has a hollow in which the tooth of the upper mandible can lodge. The talons of these Falcons are proportionately larger and more formidable than those of any other Bird of Prey; the leg is strong and muscular, and the tarsus short, the middle toe almost equalling it in length. The plumage is thick and harsh, the quills and tail-feathers of great strength. The region of the eye is bare, so as not to interfere with the scope of vision, presenting a naked ring, which is a distinguishing characteristic of the Noble Falcons. The plumage is usually of a light blueish grey above, whilst whitish grey, reddish yellow, or white predominate on the lower parts of the body; the cheeks are often curiously marked by a black streak, which has been called a beard. The males resemble the females in the coloration of their feathers, but are somewhat smaller. The young do not acquire the plumage of their parents until they are two or three years old.
Many of these birds migrate during the winter months, and spend a great portion of their time in flying over the face of the country, sweeping along with astonishing strength and rapidity, and rushing down upon their prey with a velocity that renders it impossible for the eye to follow their movements. Considerable variety is observable in the manner in which the flight of the different races of Falcons is accomplished, some moving slowly and with a hovering motion through the realms of air, others sustaining themselves for a considerable time in one spot by means of a gentle and tremulous agitation of the wings. The Noble Falcons, on the contrary, fly with quick short strokes, and an occasional gliding movement, sometimes soaring to an incredible height, and performing most varied and beautiful evolutions, more especially when they are endeavouring to attract the admiration of their mates; at other times they do not usually rise to more than 400 feet above the earth. When perching, the body, owing to the shortness of the feet, is of necessity held erect, but is kept in a horizontal position when walking on the ground, an act which they accomplish in the most awkward manner, endeavouring to render their progress more easy by a constant balancing of the wings. Early morning and evening are preferred by these Falcons for the pursuit of their prey, which they almost always capture whilst in flight, the booty being carried off to some retired spot, where they can devour it undisturbed and at leisure. Some species consume large quantities of insects, but no true Falcon in its free state will eat carrion. The process of digestion is accomplished during a light sleep into which these birds usually fall when satiated, and during which they sit perched upon some tree with streaming and disordered plumage. During the summer they live in pairs, and will allow no intruder to approach the spot where they have selected their building place, but at other seasons they occasionally associate with their congeners and form large flocks, which remain together for weeks and months at a time; towards Eagles or Owls, on the contrary, they exhibit the utmost enmity, and many are the sturdy combats that ensue should the rival marauders encroach upon each other's hunting grounds.
The eyrie of the Noble Falcons is usually very carelessly constructed, and, indeed, some of them will not take the trouble to make even ordinary preparation for their young, but seize upon the nests of some of the larger species of Ravens; whilst such as do build for themselves are content with almost any situation, and merely collect a rough heap of sticks in the holes of trees, rocks, old walls, or even on the ground, the only care for the comfort of the young family consisting in the arrangement of a slight bed of some fibrous material, upon which the brood is laid. The eggs, from three to seven in number, vary considerably in their appearance, but are for the most part round, rough-shelled, and of a pale reddish brown, marked with small spots and large patches of a darker shade. The female alone sits upon the nest, and is meanwhile tended with much assiduity by her mate, who endeavours to enliven her during the performance of her monotonous duty by every means in his power. The young receive the utmost care and attention from both parents, even after they have left the nest, and are instructed and defended from danger with most unwearying devotion.
Perhaps few creatures are so destructive to game and poultry as these Falcons, and yet for centuries they were regarded with distinguished favour by man, who had learnt how to subdue them to his service. So long ago as 400 years before Christ we hear of their being employed in the chase, and in the sixth century the passion for falconry had attained to such an extravagant excess that it was openly reprobated and forbidden in the churches; but even after this the barons, it is said, maintained their right to place their Falcons on the altar during the hours of Divine service. So violent was the rage for this pursuit in England that Edward III. commanded that those who killed a Falcon should be punished with death, and condemned to imprisonment for a year and a day whoever should take one of their nests. To such a high value had they risen in 1396 that the Duke of Nevers and many other noble captives were liberated by Bajazet on the payment of twelve white Falcons, sent to him by the Duke of Burgundy as their ransom. Francis I. kept no fewer than 300 of these valuable birds, which were reared under the care of an officer, who had fifteen noblemen and fifty falconers to assist him in his duties. In England hawking was performed on horseback or on foot—on horseback when in the fields and open country, and on foot when in the woods and coverts. In following the Hawk on foot it was usual for the sportsman to have a stout pole with him to assist him in leaping over little rivulets and ditches; this we learn from an historical fact related by Hall, who informs us that Henry VIII. pursuing his Hawk on foot at Hitchin, in Hertfordshire, attempted, with the assistance of his pole, to jump over a ditch that was half full of muddy water, the pole broke, and the king fell with his head into the mud, where he would have been stifled had not a footman leaped into the ditch and released His Majesty from his perilous situation. When the Hawk was not flying at her game, she was usually hoodwinked with a cap or hood provided for that purpose and fitted to her head, and this hood was worn abroad as well as at home. All Hawks taken upon "the fist," the term used for carrying them upon the hand, had strips of leather, called jesses, put about their legs, and the jesses were made sufficiently long for the knots to appear between the middle and little fingers of the hand that held them, so that the lunes, or small thongs of leather, might be fastened to them with two tyrrits, or rings, and the lunes were then loosely wound round the little finger. Lastly, their legs were adorned with bells fastened with rings of leather—each leg having one—the leathers to which the bells were attached were denominated bewits, and to the bewits was added the creance, or long string, by which, in tutoring, the bird was drawn back after she had been permitted to fly, a proceeding which was called the reclaiming of the Hawk. The bewits, we are informed, were for the purpose of keeping the Hawk from "winding when she bated," that is, when she fluttered her wings to fly after her game. Respecting the bells, it is particularly recommended that they should not be too heavy to impede the flight of the bird, and that they should be of equal weight, sonorous, shrill, and musical, not both of one sound, but the one a semitone below the other. The person who carried the Hawk was also provided with gloves for the purpose of preventing its talons from hurting his hands. In the inventories of apparel belonging to Henry VIII. such articles frequently occur; at Hampton Court, in the jewel house, were "seven Hawks' gloves embroidered."
Old books on hawking assign to different ranks of persons the sort of Hawks proper to be used by each, and they are enumerated in the following order:—
"The Eagle, the Vulture, and the Merloun—for an Emperor.
The Ger-faulcon, and the Tercel of the Ger-faulcon—for a King.
The Faulcon of the Rock—for a Duke.
The Faulcon Peregrine—for an Earl.
The Bastard—for a Baron.
The Sacre and the Sacret—for a Knight.
The Lanere and the Laneret—for an Esquire.
The Marlyon—for a Lady.
The Hobby—for a Young Man.
The Goshawk—for a Yeoman.
The Tercel—for a Poor Man.
The Sparrow Hawk—for a Priest.
The Musket—for a Holy Water Clerk.
The Kestrel—for a Knave or Servant."
The above list is interesting, as it may be presumed to contain the names applied to the greater part, if not all, of the birds used in hawking.
As in hunting, so in hawking the sportsmen had their peculiar expressions, and the uninitiated may read with advantage the terms employed to designate assemblages of various kinds of birds. Thus we read of a sege of Herons or of Bitterns, a herd of Swans, of Cranes, and of Curlews, a dopping of Sheldrakes, a spring of Teals, a covert of Coots, a gaggle of Geese, a badelynge of Ducks, a sord or sute of Mallards, a muster of Peacocks, a nye of Pheasants, a bevy of Quails, a covey of Partridges, a congregation of Plovers, a flight of Doves, a dole of Turtles, a walk of Snipes, a fall of Woodcocks, a brood of Chickens, a building of Rooks, a murmuration of Starlings, an exaltation of Larks, a flight of Swallows, a watch of Nightingales, and a charm of Goldfinches.
It will thus be seen that many technical expressions once employed in Falconry are still in common use.
The Mews at Charing Cross, Westminster, were so called from the word Mew, which, in Falconers' language was the name of the place wherein Hawks were kept at the moulting time, when they cast their feathers: the king's Hawks were kept at this place as early as 1377, at the beginning of the reign of Richard II., but A.D. 1537, the 27th of Henry VIII., it was converted into stables for that monarch's horses, and even up to the present time the word Mews is employed to designate London stables.