The novice to falconry has better results with a young bird removed from the nest (an eyess) than with a bird captured later in the year (a passager). For his first hawk, the novice is advised to obtain an eyess. There are so many differences in behavior and mannerism between the eyess and the passager that these differences require discussion. (Note: In the U.S. novices are not permitted to obtain and train an eyess bird, they must start with a passage red-tail or kestrel.)
The classic works on falconry, particularly those of English origin, extol the virtues of the haggard falcon above all others. As noted before, contemporary falconers primarily avoid them because the haggard represent the breeding stock of the wild populations. They also have the reputation of being so easily lost they are hardly worth the time required to train them. It may be in former times, haggards were better understood, but today the eyess are best known. In 1633, the falconer Latham wrote of the eyess: But leaving to speak any more of these kinds of scratching hawkes that I did never love should come neere my fingers, and return unto the courteous and faire conditioned Haggard Faulcon whose gallant disposition I know not how to praise or extoll so sufficiently as she deserves . . . . Nevertheless, for the contemporary novice falconer, an eyess has all the advantages.
In strict reference to falcons, not to accipiters or other hawks, these advantages vary somewhat with individual birds. Generally an eyess is a kind of inversion or mirror-image of the wild-caught bird with the faults being the virtue of the other. The greatest single advantage of having an eyess is its tameness. When it is taken young, raised and fed by hand, an eyess has no fear of man. If an eyess is trained on or near the area over which it will later be flown, the bird will develop and attachment to that area and will become so orientated it will return to the area if lost anywhere within several miles of the area. |
