Falcons

My falcon now is sharp, and passing empty;
And till she stoop, she must not be full-gorg'd,
For then she never looks upon her lure. ~ William Shakespeare

Falcons are any of 37 species of raptors in the genus Falco, widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica. Adult falcons have thin, tapered wings, which enable them to fly at high speed and to change direction rapidly. Fledgling falcons, in their first year of flying, have longer flight feathers, which make their configuration more like that of a general-purpose bird such as a broadwing. This makes it easier to fly while learning the exceptional skills required to be effective hunters as adults.

Quotes

• The falcon and the dove sit there together,
  And th' one of them doth prune the other's feather.
  • Michael Drayton, Noah's Flood; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 256.

• The lady traveler said the falcon was the bird of royals, to which my father replied, – birds do not distinguish one type of man from another but will accept any Master who treats them with dignity.
  • Marc Laidlaw, Jane (2005) reprinted in Rich Horton (ed.), Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2006, p. 162

• The red rose whispers of passion,
  And the white rose breathes of love;
  O, the red rose is a falcon,
  And the white rose is a dove.
  • John Boyle O'Reilly, A White Rose, lines 1-4, in In Bohemia (1886), p. 24.

• Say, will the falcon, stooping from above,
  Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove?
  Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings?
  Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?
  • Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733-34), Epistle III, line 53.

• Our hopes, like towering falcons, aim
  At objects in an airy height;
  The little pleasure of the game
  Is from afar to view the flight.
  • Matthew Prior, To the Honorable Charles Montague (1692).

• A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place,
  Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.
  • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act II, scene 4, line 12.

• My falcon now is sharp, and passing empty;
  And till she stoop, she must not be full-gorg'd,
  For then she never looks upon her lure.
  • William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act IV, scene 1, line 193.