Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/72

 "Among the first [perennial birds] may be reckoned the Hawks, of which we have several sorts : the Marlions, Spar-hawks, Hobbies, and, in some places, the Lannards. In the reign of Elizabeth, the Cornish and Devonshire gentlemen employed a great deal of their time in hatch- ing, nurturing, and instructing them to fly at the Partridge. In Corn- wall at present, this tedious science, which consumes so much of life for so little an end, is now no more, but still exists, it seems, in a neighbouring island ; for being at Trerice (the seat of the present Lord Arundell of Trerice), August 25, 1738, I saw a Hawk, which being overpowered by a Crow, fell near a man at his labour in the field, who perceiving the Hawk quite spent, brought it into the house to a gentle- man then steward to his Lordship. The Hawk was armed, as usual, with silver plates on its legs and neck ; and Mr. Church (so the steward was called) perceiving an inscription engraved, quickly discovered the name of an Irish gentleman, and the place he lived at ; upon this he took great care of the Hawk, and wrote immediately to the gentleman. The bird was a favourite, and the gentleman sent a servant from Ire- land into Cornwall on purpose to fetch it." p. 242.

In a letter from John Paston, Esquire, to the Knight of the same name, written at Norwich, in 1472 — in the reign of Edward IV. — it is remarked, after a most urgent appeal for a Hawk of any kind rather than none, being sent him from Calais : — "If I have not an Hawk, I shall wax fat for default of labour, and dead for default of company, by my troth."*

In the autumn and winter I have met with the peregrine fal- con in Ireland, far from its native rocks, and have little doubt that the young birds of the year generally migrate. Risso men- tions it as a bird of passage to the South of Europe, appearing in the autumn and departing in the spring.f About the marine cliffs at Navarino, I saw this species on the 29th April, 1841, and believed it to be breeding there. J

Fenn's Original Letters, &c, vol. 2, p. 111.

t Vol. 3, p. 26, edit. 1826. See Savi's Ornitologia Toscana, vol. 1, p. 41.

+ As Pennant, in treating of the Lanner, remarks, "this species breeds in Ireland," and Bewick repeats the words, it is perhaps requisite to state, that the true Falco lanarius, Linn., has never to my knowledge occurred in this country. The bird called lanner by Pennant, is now considered to be the peregrine falcon at a certain age. There can be little doubt that the " Goshawk" of more than one of our Irish lists is also this species. It is the only English name applied to "Falco peregrinus" in M'Skimmin's History of Carrickfergus. We learn also, from two excellent contribu-