My Favourite Red Willow Was Also The Chosen Haunt Of Another Being, A
Peregrine Falcon, A Large Handsome Female That Used To Spend Some
Months Each Year With Us, And Would Sit For Hours Every Day In The
Tree.
It was an ideal tree for the falcon, too, not only because it
was a quiet spot where it could doze the hot hours away in safety, but
also on account of the numbers of pigeons we used to keep.
The pigeon-
house, a round, tower-shaped building, whitewashed outside, with a
small door always kept locked, was usually tenanted by four or five
hundred birds. These cost us nothing to keep, and were never fed, as
they picked up their own living on the plain, and being strong fliers
and well used to the dangers of the open country abounding in hawks,
they ranged far from home, going out in small parties of a dozen or
more to their various distant feeding-grounds. When out riding we used
to come on these flocks several miles from home, and knew they were
our birds since no one else in that neighbourhood kept pigeons. They
were highly valued, especially by my father, who preferred a broiled
pigeon to mutton cutlets for breakfast, and was also fond of pigeon-
pies. Once or twice every week, according to the season, eighteen or
twenty young birds, just ready to leave the nest, were taken from the
dovecote to be put into a pie of gigantic size, and this was usually
the grandest dish on the table when we had a lot of people to dinner
or supper.
Every day the falcon, during the months she spent with us, took toll
of the pigeons, and though these depredations annoyed my father he did
nothing to stop them. He appeared to think that one or two birds a day
didn't matter much as the birds were so many. The falcon's custom was,
after dozing a few hours in the willow, to fly up and circle high in
the air above the buildings, whereupon the pigeons, losing their heads
in their terror, would rush up in a cloud to escape their deadly
enemy. This was exactly what their enemy wanted them to do, and no
sooner would they rise to the proper height than she would make her
swoop, and singling out her victim strike it down with a blow of her
lacerating claws; down like a stone it would fall, and the hawk, after
a moment's pause in mid-air, would drop down after it and catch it in
her talons before it touched the tree-tops, then carry it away to feed
on at leisure out on the plain. It was a magnificent spectacle, and
although witnessed so often it always greatly excited me.
One day my father went to the _galpon_, the big barn-like building
used for storing wood, hides, and horse-hair, and seeing him go up the
ladder I climbed up after him.
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