The Art and Practice of Hawking

by E. B. Michell

[2] Although the name gyrfalco—the gyrating or circling falcon—is now appropriated by most ornithologists to the Norway birds, all the foregoing were included by the old falconers under the name ger, gyr, or jer. They are all so styled, and very properly, by modern usage. They are indeed little, if anything, more than climatic varieties of the same bird, and although it has not been ascertained beyond a doubt that they interbreed, this is highly probable. The lightest variety of each one species is almost, if not quite, undistinguishable from the darkest of the next; and the character of all is similar enough to admit of their being trained and treated in the same way. From the falconer’s point of view, there will certainly be less difference between one Iceland falcon and one of either of the two nearest allied species than there may be between two individual specimens of F. islandus. They will all therefore be dealt with in the remaining chapters under the same general name of gers, unless when any special consideration involves a more specific indication.

The difference of size between the two sexes in the case of these splendid birds is, as it will be seen, considerable. But both are so superior in speed and strength to any creatures at which they are at all likely to be flown in England, that the list of quarry suitable for the gerfalcon will, with a very few exceptions, serve for the ger tiercel also. This list includes gulls of all kinds, herons, rooks and crows, wood-pigeon, black-game, grouse, partridges, hares and rabbits, wild-duck of all descriptions, Norfolk plover, and all the sea-fowls found on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, except swans, and perhaps wild geese. The gerfalcon will also take these latter, as well as kites and cranes, peacocks, ptarmigan, and bustards, at which the best of them may be flown in countries where such birds are to be found in sufficiently open places. It is recorded of Henry, king of Navarre, that he had a gerfalcon which Scaliger declares to have struck down in his sight a buzzard, two wild geese, divers kites, a crane, and a swan (Sir Thomas Browne, cited by Harting, Bibliotheca Accipitraria, xxvii.). The flight of the ger is marked by an appearance of power suitable to its size and shape, and combines in an extraordinary degree swiftness and the power of turning readily. When taught to wait on, it does so in majestic style, often at a stupendous height; and its stoop from that direction is so “hard,” as the old falconers termed it, or in other words so swift and impetuous, that the quarry is less often clutched and held than struck down with a blow as the hawk passes, and is often found either killed or altogether disabled by the violence of the shock. So great, indeed, is the vehemence with which the ger flies and stoops, that the old masters warned their pupils not to work them long on any occasion, for fear of tiring them, and thus lowering their “pitch,” or impairing their powers of mounting.

Gers have not had a very fair trial in the hands of modern falconers. They have seldom come into their possession under favourable conditions. Greenlanders, especially, have for the most part been brought to European shores by ships, upon which they were caught at sea by men quite unacquainted with the proper mode of treating a wild-caught hawk. Almost always their plumage has suffered badly; and they themselves, having been kept alive on unsuitable or scanty food, have been reduced so low as to permanently lose some of their natural strength and vitality. The same thing may be said of several Icelanders and Norwegians which have reached the hands of the falconer in pitiable plight. Gers are very seldom taken on the passage in Holland, although one tiercel, captured by Adrian Möllen in 1878, was acquired and trained by the Old Hawking Club, and proved a fine performer at rooks. Reference has already been made to the gers brought by John Barr from Norway. Mr. Newcome, who in the treatment of peregrines was excelled by no falconer of modern times, was dissatisfied with the gers which he trained, and found them difficult to keep in condition.

D’Arcussia, who, of course, had many gers under his charge, declares that their principal excellence was in mounting, whereas in the downward stoop the peregrine might be awarded the palm. This opinion, however, can hardly be reconciled with the more forcible and striking words which he uses in another passage, where he tells us that having trained some gers for partridges he took them out before a company of experts, who, after seeing these hawks fly, were “disgusted with all other hawks.”

Peregrine (Falco peregrinus)

Female—Length, about 18 inches; wing, 14; tail, 7; tarsus, 2¼. Male—Length, about 16 inches; wing, 12; tail, 6; tarsus, 2.

In young birds of both sexes the upper plumage is a more or less dark brown, inclining in some individuals to chocolate colour, and in others to black, each feather of the back, wing, and tail coverts tipped with a lighter and more rufous brown. The chin, neck, breast, thighs, and whole under plumage is more or less dull creamy white, streaked plentifully with longitudinal blotches of dark brown, which are thin and small at the neck, but become broader and bigger as they approach the lower part of the breast, dying away again towards the vent. The tail is greyish brown on the upper surface, tipped with more or less rufous white, and barred with five or six rather irregular and rather faint bands of darker brown. The under part of the tail is very faint brownish grey, barred with a somewhat darker hue of the same colour. The sides of the head and neck are dull creamy white, streaked with very small dashes and markings of dark brown. On the under side of the eyebrow, passing round the eyelids, is a patch or streak of very dark brown, and a broad streak of the same colour or of black reaches like a moustache from near the back of the upper mandible backwards for an inch.

The legs, feet, cere, and eyelids vary from light blue-grey to greenish yellow and pale ochre; beak, light bluish grey, darkening to black at the tip; claws—called always by falconers “talons”—black, as in other hawks of all kinds. In the first moult the brown of the whole upper plumage is replaced by a slatey blue, each feather from the shoulders to the end of the tail barred transversely and tipped more or less distinctly with a lighter shade of blue-grey. The slate colour on the crown and side of the head, including the moustache, is of a dark hue. The under plumage, instead of being streaked longitudinally with brown, becomes at the first moult spotted and splashed with markings of dark grey, which are partly transverse and partly shaped like an arrow-head or tear-drop, especially on the throat and gorge. At each successive moult these spots and markings become more transverse and bar-like, and also narrower and more sparse on the parts nearest the chin, until in very old birds they disappear on the chin and throat, leaving a blank surface of pure creamy white. Even before the first moult the feet and legs begin to assume a yellow colour; and by the time the first moult is over, they and the cere and eyelids have changed to a more or less decided yellow, which as the bird grows old develops into a rich gold.

Both sexes undergo the same changes in plumage, but it should be said that these hawks at all ages vary considerably in size and shape, and still more in their colouring. It is not unusual to see an eyess which has the head and parts of the upper plumage nearly black, while the brown of others at the same age is as light as cocoa, with buff edgings. Some detailed remarks as to the size and shape of peregrines and other hawks will be found in [Chapter XVIII.] , where it will be seen that some are of much more prepossessing appearance than others.