Free Falcon by Helen MacDonald

espying the quarry, tips over into a vertical stoop, falling at dramatic speed on an intercepting path towards its prey. The sound of a falcon stooping from a towering pitch across miles of sky can be awe-inspiring: a strange, tearing noise like ripping cloth. As the bird cuts through the air, an adrenalin- filled rush of a kind familiar to airshow or Grand Prix attendees is the inevitable result for the onlooker. ‘You are the bird’, exclaimed falconer Alva Nye. 8 It seems that the quarry will inevitably be overhauled and killed instantly with a clout of the falcon’s foot. But inevitable it is not. Most flights end
The ‘Haut Vol’, high altitude flight, was revived in the 19th cent- ury by the exclusive Royal Loo Hawking Club, which flew peregrines at herons over the open heaths of the Veluwe region of the Nether- lands. The herons were usually released after they’d been caught.
In a 1940s photograph, the American falconer Steve Gatti exer- cises his peregrine to the lure.

with the quarry escaping and the falcon returning to the fal- coner’s lure.
The lure – a long cord with a leather pad or a pair of dried wings at one end – is also used to exercise the falcon by getting her to chase it in mid-air. It’s a device familiar to readers of The Taming of the Shrew , in which many obscure falconry terms are encountered. Shakespeare was writing in falconry’s European heyday, a time when its terminology was bewilderingly com- plex. As in any elite activity, the vocabulary and etiquette of falconry had gatekeeping functions; a proficient command of them attested to one’s high social position. Jesuit spy Father Southwell, for example, was exceedingly worried that he would reveal his true identity by forgetting his falconry terms. 9
There were dedicated terms for falconry furniture , for differ- ent flight styles, for every part of the falcon. A hawk’s talons were her pounces , her toes her petty singles, her wings her sails and chest-feathers her mail. When a falcon sneezed, she snurted . Some of these terms are still used by falconers: young falcons

are eyasses and immature wild falcons passagers . When a falcon lands she pitches ; falcons mount into the sky, rather than climb; when they wipe their beaks they feak and when they shake themselves, they rouse.
Their original meanings now obscure, some terms continue in more general use today: when hawks drink, they bowse or booze . Tid-bits are scraps of meat proffered to a falcon; a cadge is a field-perch; a haggard is a wild adult falcon and thus difficult to train. And while the term might be more familiarly applied to exclusive, eye-wideningly expensive properties in central London, mews were originally built to house birds of prey while they moulted in the summer months.
Falconers claim Shakespeare as one of their own. This engraving from J. E. Harting’s 1864 Ornithology of Shakespeare playfully adds a falcon to the famous Chandos portrait.
falconry furniture
Despite the arcane terminology of falconry, its equipment, or furniture , is relatively simple and eminently practical. Perhaps the most familiar of all is the thin leather hood . Popped over the falcon’s head it blocks out all light, and apart from its role in the hunting field, its judicious use keeps half-trained or highly strung birds from alarming sights. Hoods come in many designs – Indian goatskin hoods; soft Arab hoods; stiff, heavy Dutch hoods with coloured side-panels and a wool and feather plume. Modern artisan-falconers have created moulded and beautifully finished hybrid designs that are far lighter and more comfortable for the falcon than many of the ornamented older styles.
Falcons are normally held on the leather-gloved left fist. Arab falconers carry them on a woven mangalah , or cuff. The reasons for holding falcons on the left fist are obscure. Medieval clerics unsurprisingly saw it has having mystical sig- nificance. According to one manuscript, falcons are carried on the left