The art and practice of hawking - Modern Prepper

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THE BIRDS USED IN HAWKING 11
joint of the wing is shorter than in the falcons, the wing deriving
its power from the feathers near the body rather than from the
outer ones. The beak is longer in shape than that of the other
two sorts, and the legs are proportionately stouter. The size of
the smallest eagle is very much greater than that of the largest
falcon or hawk.
The differences which exist in the shape of the wing between
the three classes will perhaps be best appreciated by a glance
at the accompanying illustration, in which a characteristic wing
of each kind is figured.
The French have convenient terms (see Belvallette, Traite
d'Autouj-serie, Paris, 1887) which express in themselves, with
great perspicuity, though perhaps a little exaggeration, the
different methods of flying employed by the short- and the longwinged
hawks. The latter they describe as ramiers, or rowers,
because their mode of progression through the air resembles
that of an oarsman, or rather sculler, striking with repeated
beats of his sculls ;
whilst they describe the short-winged hawks
(with eagles and all birds that have rounded wings) as voiliers,
or sailers, maintaining that their impulse is gained by the
pressure of the air against the wing, upon which it acts as upon
a sail. Many people may be inclined to call such a distinction
rather fanciful, and even question its truth ; but the mere fact
that the two words have been accepted as correctly denoting
the two separate styles of flying, shows what a marked difference
between them has been generally admitted to exist. It will be
seen that the mode of flying the " rowers " and the " sailers " at
quarry is also very distinct.
In accordance with the three-fold classification above suggested,
I now proceed to mention the various birds used in
hawking under the successive headings of — (i) Long -winged
hawks ; (2) Short-winged hawks ; and (3) Eagles.
I. THE LONG-WINGED HAWKS (Falcons)
Perhaps the leading characteristic in the flying of this kind
of hawk is that it habitually captures its prey, or, as falconers
^ It should be observed that although the term falcon has an established meaning
among ornithologists as a name for the long-winged hawks, it is used by falconers
in quite a different acceptation. In hawking phraseology it is applied, in contradistinction
to the term tiercel, to the female of the larger sorts of long-winged hawks,
and especially to the female peregrine. Thus when a falconer is described as being
possessed of "two falcons," or a hare is mentioned as having been taken by a
"falcon," the reader is expected to know that the female peregrine is referred to,
and not a male peregrine, or a saker, lanner, or any other kind of hawk.