The Irish standard., 1888-07-07
IL Il . MIN d WITH !FALc Col


UNITING 81 With FALc CON $.
prescription 81 Sport which was 90
s,s One Time Very Popular.
As my party was crossing space iot
swithered bracken on a sunny day IN
late October, on the shore of the Sea
|loch Of Locheil,I caught glimp of .
bird which jumped up q foot off the
ground in: the bracken, disturbed in
our approach one hundred yards of.
The keeper declared it a winged gyOuse.
Ieknew it well for Scolopax rusticola.
Here was chance. To stop the men
and the cadge; to take a lovely and
favorite little Welsh eyess falcon, born
in the rocks OF the Glamorganshire
- Worms Head on my hand, to cast
her off and to form a line across the
bracken, was soon done. Up rose the
falcon in the sunshine, and perhaps If
/ had had little more patience and
allowed poor s'Taillio" $50 called from
her broken but we'll inped up tail
more time to mount, this story might
never have been written and the wood
cock brought to hand by the hawks
very first stoop.
However, we soon moved on, and SO
also did the cock, and up he went,
too. most cheerfully. Down came the
falcon; the cock shifted cleverly, and
stretched away upward from the blue
sea loch in wide zigzags, flying for all
the world just like his congener, tho
full snipe, goes up, and apparently
with even greater ease. speed and de-
termination, if possible, than he. In
short, I never believed then that any
trained peregrine could overhaul such
bird, for I we'll knew that captivity
and training depriyes falcon Of fully
one-third of her natural wing power,
and that the woodcock possessed all
his, and had probably not SO very long
arrived from Scandinavia on the
wings he was making suck use Of; and
|eeven now I ana convinced I should
have had good passage falcon fol-
this flight, and chat the eyess would
never have killed ii the cock had NOT
turned back.
Away toiled poor little Taillie up.
ward also-not in the rings she could
make so well on occasion, but in 8
straight line. AS the cock was eyi.
IDENTIFY bent or crossing the sea loch
(there mile wide) for distant Dhuls-
kee, I soon saw that the matter was
growing serious, and down dropped
with fine pair of Volghtlander field.
glasses at my eyes. On my left were
the well-known best pair of eyes in
all broad Argyleshire in the head OF
my ghillie, Sandy Kennedy, the "Fox-
hunter's' son; ON my right my light
sighted falconer, Jamie Barr. Il can.
ma see them,'' qaoth he on the right.
II ken 'em fine, % said he on ths left
Gas we'll he might. 81 ken them nc
more, - soon came from him also. ant
my glasses alone held the field. Soor
( thought the two little dots which
had then become one, grew somewha,
larger. II ken 'etn again, came from:
ny right; 81 see them, / see theln!'
from my left.
u Larger and larger grew the spot
then it turned into two spots, boil:
shooting out OF the clear blue sky,
over the clearer blue loch, right toward
our astonished eyes, with this dit
ference, that. "Tai]lie" was now fal
the higher ZIP in this headlong fall,
and the woodcock was plainly seeking
the shelter OF the very Same bank Of
bracfzen he had risen from. Forward
shot the falcon, and turning over, de.
livered the stoop known and loved BY
falconers of all ages; and this tins
with entire success. The cock wa.
cut completely over and fell from
height of two hundreds yards, leaving
trail of brown feathers in the cir
dead as a. stone, not fifty yards from
where we were lying. s'Her con
queror descended on closed pinions,'
as Knox has it in his inin1itable de-
ecription of fight he saw, worked by
wild falcon at q wild mallard, in Ire
land; and there she sat, with the dead
quarry safe in her foot, on an op 4
knoll on the moor C''as tame as a par
rot,'' said BARR, while eating her we'll
earned meal, and perfectly free ane
unfettered all the time.--
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