PRACTICAL FALCONRY; TO WHICH IS ADDED HOW I BECAME A FALCONER. By Gage Earl Freeman. Falconry Heritage Series Number 3. De Luxe Edition.

(1869) 2021 1st edition thus - "de luxe issue." Large 8vo (165 x 244mm). Pp106. B/w photographs, marbled end-papers. Maroon boards, spine and upper board titled in gilt. Slip-case and marbled card sleeve. Edition limited to 150 numbered copies signed by the author.

An excellent early reference for the gentleman sportsman falconer, including some "trifling anecdotes." "This little book, written from personal experience of the author, has done much to keep alive the traditions of falconry and encourage its modern revival." (Harting. Bibliotheca Accipitraria. 1891.) Chapters include: Practical Falconer: Preliminaries; The Peregrine Falcon (hack); Castings, hooding, flown to the lure, 'waiting on', use and abuse of pigeons; Partridge and grouse hawking, with some comments on 'carrying' markers, wood pigeons etc; Haggards with game, chickens and eyasses, heron hawking, magpie hawking, pewits, wild ducks, house pigeons; Other flight, the jerfalcon, merlins, the goshawk, the sparrowhawk, the bath, imping, the brail, moult, diseases, haggards, lost hawks, live pigeons; Conclusion. How I Became A Falconer: First experiences with kestrels, sparrowhawks, merlins, early notes on flying the merlin, my old enthusiasm; Sport, hawks frightening game from the land, permission to fly at grouse, black cloud; Storm cloud, the Princess, Islay, nearly blinded, an appeal to the generosity of sportsmen; Some trifling anecdotes; Chapter Five is chiefly on the goshawk.