A CANADIAN REVIVES FALCONRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1937, Page 7 (Supplement)

A CANADIAN REVIVES FALCONRY.

Ancient Sport In A Modern Guise. BIRDS THAT ARE RARELY FOUND NOWADAYS.

(By KENNETH CRAGG.—Copyright.)

TORONTO (Ont.) HE rides to the chase with a falcon upon his fist. He spends hi* days in the financial mart that is Bay Street and his nights training and "manning" a peregrine falcon. It sounds like a nightmarish concoction of medievalism and modernismknights on motor cycles or the ma«nc carpet powered by a rotary engine. But, in fact, it is neither. It is just a straight 1C36 revival in Canada of a sport which was born of man's early necessity in Central Asia. Don MacKinnon, a broker, rides—but in an automobile. The hunt is in nearby North York and the falcon, known commonly as a duck hawk is of our own Muskoka breed. The North American falcon is scarcely distinguishable from the peregrine falcon of Europe. She belongs to the most cosmopolitan family in the world and haj relatives on both sides of, the equator to call her own.' To the enthusiast she is the falcon of falcons. 1

Don MacKinnon is more than an enthusiast. He i* so infested with the virus that the golfing crank is, by comparison, just a doddering homelover. He counts it as good fortune for some ffirl that he isn't married. He can spend a couple of hours each evening with Lady, the falcon, and can count the time well spent. If you reveal any interest you will be shown a picture of Lady. In her shape is grace and strength and speed. In her ancestry is a history, dating back beyond Kubla Khan, of superior skill in the chase, of unchallenged rule in her field and of homage from widely divergent races. and ages. At one time, nS one beneath the rank of an earl could own her. Retains Characteristics. Lady has not changed one particle through the centuries. Methods of handling and training are the same. The only alien presence in the picture is the auton.obile, but even to the falcon it is not alien. Strictly speaking, she rides to the chase, not upon her master's fist, j>ut perched unhooded on the back of tne front seat. Sha is trained in the traditions of the old English and Scottish school. She is directed by the same word commands which falconers used back in the time of the Norman kings.

Whoop away," Mr. MacKinnon calls out as the falcon leaves his fist in flight. And as she mounts higher and higher in great wide circles, he cries louder in encouragement, "Whoop away! Whoop away!" until even North York farmers, toughened to the antics of citv folks, sometimes stop and wonder. * They stop and wonder as the sportsman, watching intently the bird upstairs, changes his note and cries out, | Why Loe! Why Loe!" And they say: "Danged if the hawk didn't come down like a bullet." Or they see him put a whistle to his lips. They can see him blowing, but there is no sound. But the falcon swings back to him in response to a whistle call so high in tone that it is inaudible to the human ear. Only Trained Falcon in Country. That is falconry and its age is timeless. But so far as Mr. MacKinnon knows,, and so far as authorities know, he has the only trained falcon in this country. And the whole responsibility

rests squarely upon an Upper Canada College oral composition. That was back in 1920 or early in 1921. Young MacKinnon read a story called "Falconry, the Sport of Kings." It interested him—interested him so much that he got a 95 for his oral composition based on that article. Later, when he attended a school in England, he became acquainted with a Dutch chap who had a falcon. He forgot all about falconry until he saw a

squib in a newspaper which reported that two men down in Western Ontario were training a hawk to keep starlings out of their orchards. This littla story stirred up the hawking blood again. In succession Mr. MacKinnon got a red-tail hawk, a cooper's hawk and a goshawk. His success with these birds was variable. Anyway, they do not enter into the story of Lady, the falcon. The red-tail is now flying free. The other two are serving still as study subjects at the Royal Ontario Museum. Mr. MacKinnon started to pester the museum authorities about the real thing. Where could he get a falcon, that was the question. It took just about two years of inquiry and searching before an eyrie was found. His difficulty can be appreciated when it is understood that the museum authorities, who take note of such things with the earnestness of a government tax official looking for assessable income, place a little red pin on a map of Ontario whenever a falcon eyrie is found. The home neat of Lady, the falcon, m only the 24th that has been pricked on the map since 1899. Taken From Eyrie. Mr. MacKinnon isn't telling where this nest is situated. It is some place north of Huntsville. It m on the face of one of the countless rock escarpments in that northern area. You »et to it by lowering yourself by ropes ,do\vn 80 feet over the edge of the cliff. Now there i» ft tip for any of you falcon lovers. Lady was about two and a half months old when ehe was plucked out of the bosom of her startled and angry family one black night. She was taken from the nest before she was ready to fly and in the language of the craft is known as an eyess female. The male that has not

yet flown is called an eyess tiercel. He is called a tiercel because he is only onethird the size of the female. If the young birds have left the nest and have had experience at the kill before their capture they are called "haggards." From point of custom the female bird is called a falcon without further explanation. Because of her greater size and ability to kill the larger and stronger quarry, falconers use the female almost exclusively. Lady has not yet killed. One of these autumn days ehe will be offered her first quarry, a pigeon with its wings clipped so that it can't fly very fast. The first kill has to be easy to encourage the falcon. One of these daya Lady will be soaring above her trainer when a pigeon will pop out of a concealed spot a few yards away and she will be called to "stoop" at the live bird rather than the lure. If she is successful the final roundisg out of the training will be fast and comparatively easy. "If she takes it she is made," said Mr. MacKinnon. "All that remains to do after that is to fly her as much as possible and to keep her in condition." —N.A.N.A.