Head covered with feathers, bill strong, short, generally bending from
its base, which is covered with a naked and coloured cere. Nostrils
round or oval, lateral, and placed in the cere. Tongue in most species
fleshy and divided by a slit. Upper orbit of the eye projecting. Legs
feathered to the toes, or naked. Toes three forwards and one behind, the
middle toe connected with the outer one, as far as the first joint.
Claws short and very hooked, strong and retractile. Female superior in
size to the male.—_Montagu._
FALCON, _s._ A hawk trained for sport; a bird of immense flight.
_Vide_ HAWK.
[Illustration: THE FALCON.]
It is recorded, that a falcon belonging to a Duke of Cleves, flew out of
Westphalia into Prussia in one day; and in the county of Norfolk, a hawk
has made a flight at a woodcock near thirty miles in an hour.
But what are these compared to the actual velocity and continuance of
the flight of a falcon, that is recorded to have belonged to Henry IV.,
King of France, which escaped from Fontainbleau, and in twenty-four
hours after was found in Malta, a space computed to be not less than
1350 miles? a velocity equal to fifty-seven miles an hour, supposing the
hawk to have been on wing the whole time. But as such birds never fly by
night, and allowing the day to be at the longest, or to be eighteen
hours light, this would make seventy-five miles an hour. It is probable,
however, that he neither had so many hours of light in the twenty-four
to perform the journey, nor that he was retaken the moment of his
arrival, so that we may fairly conclude much less time was occupied in
performing that distant flight.—_Vide_ FLIGHT OF BIRDS.
FALCONER, _s._ One who breeds and trains hawks.
The village of Falconswaerd, near Bois le Duc, in Holland, has for many
years furnished falconers to the rest of Europe. I have known many
falconers in England, and in the service of different princes on the
Continent, but I never met with one of them who was not a native of
Falconswaerd.
It has been the practice of these sober and industrious men to stay with
their employers during the season for hawking, and to pass the remainder
of the year with their families at home.
* * * * *
A falconer, whose province it was to tame, manage, and look after
falcons and other hawks, was formerly as great and conspicuous a
character as the most celebrated huntsman of the present day. The
influence of fashion and the changes wrought by time have, however, so
obscured both sport and sportsmen in this way, that neither hawk,
falcon, or falconer, are to be seen or heard of, unless in the northern
parts of the kingdom, where it is also nearly buried in
oblivion.—_Sebright_—_Daniel._
FALCONRY, _s._ _Vide_ HAWKING.
FALLOW, _a._ Pale red, or pale yellow; unsowed, left to rest after
the years of tillage; ploughed, but not sowed; unploughed,
uncultivated.
FALLOW DEER, _s._ The domestic or park deer.
[Illustration]
No two animals can make a more near approach to each other than the stag
and the fallow deer, and yet no two animals keep more distinct, or avoid
each other with more fixed animosity; they never herd or intermix
together, and consequently never give rise to an intermediate race. It
is even rare, unless they have been transported thither, to find
fallow-deer in a country where stags are numerous.
The fallow-deer is easily tamed, and feeds upon many things which the
stag refuses; he also preserves his venison better: nor does it appear
that the rutting, followed by a long and severe winter, exhausts him,
but he continues nearly in the same state throughout the year. He
browses closer than the stag, for which reason he is more prejudicial to
young trees, and often strips them too close for recovery. The young
deer eat faster and with more avidity than the old. At the second year
they seek the female, and, like the stag, are fond of variety. The doe
goes with young eight months and some days; she commonly produces one
fawn, sometimes two, but very rarely three. They are capable of
engendering, from the age of two years to that of fifteen or sixteen;
and in short they resemble the stag in all his natural habits, and the
greatest difference between them is the duration of their lives. From
the testimony of hunters it has been remarked, that stags live to the
age of thirty-five or forty years, and from the same authority we
understand that the fallow-deer does not live more than twenty. As they
are smaller than the stag, it is probable that their growth is sooner
completed.
* * * * *
If some curious gentleman would procure the head of a fallow-deer, and
have it dissected, he would find it furnished with two spiracula, or
breathing places, besides the nostrils; probably analogous to the
_puncta lachrymalia_ in the human head. When deer are thirsty they
plunge their noses, like some horses, very deep under water while in the
act of drinking, and continue them in that situation for a considerable
time; but, to obviate any inconveniency, they can open two vents, one at
the inner corner of each eye, having a communication with the nose. Here
seems to be an extraordinary provision of nature worthy our attention;
and which has not, that I know of, been noticed by any naturalist. For
it looks as if these creatures would not be suffocated, though both
their mouths and nostrils were stopped. This curious formation of the
head may be of singular service to beasts of chase, by affording them
free respiration: and no doubt these additional nostrils are thrown open
when they are hard run.—_Buffon_—_White’s Selborne._