Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/63

 eyries have been annually in requisition for more than thirty years, to supply different sportsmen, but chiefly my friend, John Sinclaire, Esq., with falcons for the chase.* The best time to secure the young, is just before they essay then- wings, but they are sometimes taken at an earlier period, when arrayed in a cos- tume of pure white down. They are generally three in number, but, in a few instances, four have been obtained ; in which case, one is generally much smaller than the others. An exception to this occurred at Salagh Braes, in 1838, when all four were of similar size ; and, what is most unusual, of the same sex, being females. Three females and one male were, in another instance, the produce of a nest ; but the two sexes are, upon the whole, considered to be about equal in number, — the females, perhaps, rather preponderating. If either an old male or female be killed in the breeding season, (not an uncommon circumstance,) another mate is found within a very few days ; so that the eyries, notwith- standing such casualties, are sure to turn out their complement of young. An addled egg is not unfrequently brought from the nest with the young birds, when of a proper age to be reared ; from which it would appear, that there is no desire on the part of of the parent birds to get rid of it. Mr. Sinclaire states, that on going to obtain these hawks, — which is done by a person sus- pended from the summit of the cliff by a rope, — he has often seen the tercel, or male bird, circling at a great height in the air, with prey for the eyrie, while the female, loudly screaming, kept flying about the vicinity of the nest. The food was then dropped by the tercel, and as it fell through the air was seized by his partner, who bore it off to the young. In captivity, when grow- ing, they eat twice or thrice as much as after they have attained full size, which they do very soon. The greatest regularity in

1626, directed that his third son, Bryan O'Flahertie, should have the Cleggan, an extensive tract in the barony of Balinahiuch ' excepting onelie the Aiery of hawks upon Barnanoran,' reserved for his eldest son, Morogh na Mart." In High Island, also, it is remarked, that "yearlie an ayrie of hawkes is found," p. 115.

One of these localities in Ballynascreen, county of Londonderry, frequented from time immemorial by the peregrine falcon, is called Craig-na-shoke, or rock of the hawks.