FALCONRY: A GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS. By Stuart E. Rossell.

2020 1st edition. Large 8vo (181 x 261mm). Pp271. Colour photographs, b/w illustrations by Nathan Birr, bibliography, DVD laid in. Gilt titles to brown boards, spine titled in gilt.

A new and authoritative introduction to falconry, covering longwings, shortwings, broadwings and eagles. The book also contains a fair amount of material on trapping, legal in America. Chapters include: Introduction to falconry - types of bird and nomenclature; The hawks of falconry - longwings, shortwings, broadwings, eagles; Equipment and housing for the hawk - mews and weathering, jesse, swivels, leashes, tethering, bells, telemetry, hoods, perches, bath pans, transport box and cadges, scales, gloves, lure and lure lines, creance, lure machine, hawking bags and vests; Trapping - bow net, bal-chatri, pigeon harness, noose carpet, winding up, cage traps, dho-ghazza, phai trap, bait, trapping tactics, road trapping; The basics of trapping a hawk - flying weight, finding the flying weight, diet; Training the red-tailed hawk - overall goals, from the beginning, as training progresses, the next stage, using the creance, summary of the daily routine; Advanced training - flying free and following on, dummy lure, lure machine, fitness work; Hawking; The Harris' Hawk; Wrapping up - daily and weekly routines, field etiquette, recovering lost hawks, the future. A good read by a British author with a long professional track record. In his twenties Rossell established a private working bird of prey collection for his then employer. He instructed for some years at the British School of Falconry before moving to the US to run Falconry Academy in California. He subsequently set up a bird control program for the US Air Force, managed bird abatement, raptor tagging and relocation at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, and now pursues this commercially with his own company.