120 OTTER HUNTING, FALCONRY, SHOOTING 



Should they be very forward when they are received, 

 they are fastened to the blocks near the board until 

 they thoroughly recognise it as the place where they 

 will find food. When this happens, they are quietly 

 released. It is considered essential, by those who adopt 

 this form of hack, that the hawks should see as little 

 of any human being as possible. The fear is that, 

 should they recognise their feeders, they will scream 

 and fly low. 



The second arrangement is this : 



The hawks are placed on a platform in the loft with 

 straw, not hay, for their bedding. As soon as they can 

 tear food for themselves, it is offered to them on lures, 

 one lure for each hawk. The falconer whistles loudly 

 while they feed. Presently they fly down to the floor to 

 feed from the lures ; then the loft door is opened and 

 they fly out, settling probably on the house or on the 

 nearest tree. They soon go a couple of miles or so away, 

 but return at feeding-times at the sight of the lures and 

 the sound of the whistle. 



This was my own plan ; it was the plan of my old 

 friend William Brodrick, whom I knew in 1850. I never 

 had a case of screaming or low-flying, unless by accident 

 I had received a bird taken from the eyrie when it was 

 too young. Such a bird I should not keep for a day ; 

 and no one ever saw one of my entered evesses fly low 

 when ' waiting on,' or heard it scream. There is this 

 obvious advantage, too, in this second plan — that the 



