and, in part or in whole, they have been often reprinted. There
is a modern critical edition of Chrisfal and a Carta (letter) by A.
Epiphanio da Silva Dias under the title Obras de Christovão Falcão
(Oporto, 1893), and one of the Cantigas and Esparsas by the same
scholar appeared in the Revista Lusitana, vol. 4, pp. 142-179 (Lisbon,
1896), under the name Fragmento de um Cancioneiro do Seculo XVI.
See Bernardim Ribeiro e o Bucolismo, by Dr T. Braga (Oporto, 1897),
and Bernardim Ribeiro (O Poeta Crisfal), by Delfim Guimarães
(Lisbon, 1908). (E. Pr.)
FALCK, ANTON REINHARD (1777–1843), Dutch statesman,
was born at Utrecht on the 19th of March 1777. He studied
at the university of Leiden, and entered the Dutch diplomatic
service, being appointed to the legation at Madrid. Under King
Louis Napoleon he was secretary-general for foreign affairs, but
resigned office on the annexation of the Batavian republic to
France. He took a leading part in the revolt of 1813 against
French domination, and had a considerable share in the organization
of the new kingdom of the Netherlands. As minister of
education under William I. he reorganized the universities of
Ghent, Louvain and Liége and the Royal Academy of Brussels.
Side by side with his activities in education he directed the
departments of trade and the colonies. Falck was called in
Holland the king’s good genius, but William I. presently tired
of his counsels and he was superseded by Van Maanen. He was
ambassador in London when the disturbances of 1830 convinced
him of the necessity of the separation of Belgium from Holland.
He consequently resigned his post and lived in close retirement
until 1839, when he became the first Dutch minister at the Belgian
court. He died at Brussels on the 16th of March 1843. Besides
some historical works he left a correspondence of considerable
political interest, printed in Brieven van A. R. Falck, 1795–1843
(2nd ed. The Hague, 1861), and Ambtsbrieven van A. R. Falck
(ibid. 1878).
FALCÓN, the most northern state of Venezuela, with an
extensive coast line on the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Venezuela.
Pop. (1905 est.) 173,968. It lies between the Caribbean on the
N. and the state of Lara on the S., with Zulia and the Gulf of
Venezuela on the W. Its surface is much broken by irregular
ranges of low mountains, and extensive areas on the coast are
sandy plains and tropical swamps. The climate is hot, but,
being tempered by the trade winds, is not considered unhealthy
except in the swampy districts. The state is sparsely settled
and has no large towns, its capital, Coro, being important
chiefly because of its history, and as the entrepôt for an extensive
inland district. The only port in the state is La Vela de Coro,
on a small bay of the same name, 7 m. E. of the capital, with
which it is connected by railway.
FALCON (Lat. Falco;[1] Fr. Faucon; Teutonic, Falk or Valken),
a word now restricted to the high-couraged and long-winged
birds of prey which take their quarry as it moves; but formerly
it had a very different meaning, being by the naturalists of the
18th and even of the 19th century extended to a great number
of birds comprised in the genus Falco of Linnaeus and writers
of his day,[2] while, on the other hand, by falconers, it was,
and still is, technically limited to the female of the birds
employed by them in their vocation (see Falconry), whether
“long-winged” and therefore “noble,” or “short-winged” and
“ignoble.”
According to modern usage, the majority of the falcons, in the sense first given, may be separated into five very distinct groups: (1) the falcons pure and simple (Falco proper); (2) the large northern falcons (Hierofalco, Cuvier); (3) the “desert falcons” (Gennaea, Kaup); (4) the merlins (Aesalon, Kaup); and (5) the hobbies (Hypotriorchis, Boie). A sixth group, the kestrels
(Tinnunculus, Vieillot), is often added. This, however, appears to have been justifiably reckoned a distinct genus.
 |
| Fig. 1.—Peregrine Falcon. |
The typical falcon is by common consent allowed to be that almost cosmopolitan species to which unfortunately the English epithet “peregrine” (i.e. strange or wandering) has been attached. It is the Falco peregrinus of Tunstall (1771) and of most recent ornithologists, though some prefer the specific name communis applied by J. F. Gmelin a few years later (1788) to a bird which, if his diagnosis be correct, could not have been a true falcon at all, since it had yellow irides—a colour never met with in the eyes of any bird now called by naturalists a “falcon.” This species inhabits suitable localities throughout the greater part of the globe, though examples from North America have by some received specific recognition as F. anatum (the “duck-hawk”), and those from Australia have been described as distinct under the name of F. melanogenys. Here, as in so many other cases, it is almost impossible to decide as to which forms should, and which should not, be accounted merely local races. In size not surpassing a raven, this falcon (fig. 1) is perhaps the most powerful bird of prey for its bulk that flies, and its courage is not less than its power. It is the species, in Europe, most commonly trained for the sport of hawking (see Falconry). Volumes have been written upon it, and to attempt a complete account of it is, within the limits now available, impossible. The plumage of the adult is generally blackish-blue above, and white, with a more or less deep cream-coloured tinge, beneath—the lower parts, except the chin and throat, being barred transversely with black, while a black patch extends from the bill to the ear-coverts, and descends on either side beneath the mandible. The young have the upper parts deep blackish-brown, and the lower white, more or less strongly tinged with ochraceous-brown, and striped longitudinally with blackish-brown. From Port Kennedy, the most northern part of the American continent, to Tasmania, and from the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk to Mendoza in the Argentine territory, there is scarcely a country in which this falcon has not been found. Specimens have been received from the Cape of Good Hope, and it is only a question of the technical differentiation of species whether it does not extend to Cape Horn. Fearless as it is, and adapting itself to almost every circumstance, it will form its eyry equally on the sea-washed cliffs, the craggy mountains, or (though more rarely) the drier spots of a marsh in the northern hemisphere, as on trees (says H. Schlegel) in the forests of Java or the waterless ravines of Australia. In the United Kingdom it was formerly very common, and hardly a high rock from the Shetlands to the Isle of Wight
- ↑ Unknown to classical writers, the earliest use of this word is said to be by Servius Honoratus (circa A.D. 390–480) in his notes on Aen. x. 145. It seems possibly to be the Latinized form of the Teutonic Falk, though falx is commonly accounted its root.
- ↑ The nomenclature of nearly all the older writers on this point is extremely confused. What many of them, even so lately as Pennant’s time, termed the “gentle falcon” is certainly the bird we now call the goshawk (i.e. goose-hawk), which name itself may have been transferred to the Astur palumbarius of modern ornithologists, from one of the long-winged birds of prey.
