Word: falcone
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...Clocker turned and waved to his wife. "Old horses never die," he whimpered, "they go to Suffolk Downs." The Clocker gave these tips: First Doit Easy; Fifth, Four Chances; Sixth, Algasir; Seventh, Blue Falcon; Eighth, Soma Lad; Ninth, Quatrefoil...
...falcon . . . dashes away as quickly as its hood is removed and the hawker releases the bird from his wrist. It promptly mounts to a height of perhaps half a mile, and "waits on" in circling flight above its owner until prey is flushed, whereupon the falcon dives to the attack in its incredibly swift stoop. It is not unusual for a peregrine 2,000 feet in the sky to get down and kill its quarry pigeon before the prey has traveled 100 yards. A breath-taking sight...
...falcon does not return to its trainer's arm after making a kill, but squats on Its victim . . . until the hawker comes quietly up and lifts the falcon to his hand again. If the kill is made beyond the hawker's sight or quick reach, the hawk may gorge itself and fly off, never to be recaptured. Few falcons remain captives more than a few months...
...Falcons have an impressive history. More than 4,000 years ago they were used for hunting by the Chinese. Falconry (the art of directing a falcon to take off, attack its prey and return to the extended arm of its trainer) was the sport of kings throughout the Middle Ages...
Last week U.S. bird watchers had an eye peeled for the peregrine falcons which were migrating from the northeastern U.S. and Canada to the Gulf states and the Caribbean. But not all were migrating this month. The New York World-Telegram and Sun noted that a very few will winter-as-usual, of all places, high on craggy skyscrapers in Manhattan. There they have found ledges as bare and precipitous as any mountain falcon eyrie. And they have a year-round food supply in the thousands of fat and sassy Manhattan pigeons who linger below...