OTTER HUNTING, FALCONRY, SHOOTING 125 



tender beefsteak which he takes from his pouch. She 

 was, in fact, ' fed-up,' for we had to go home. 



So much for yesterday. As far as to-day is concerned, 

 we have been hawking, as I have said, without a dog, 

 for this is what happened. Don was left at home. A 

 pointer, as will be seen, is not necessary, but I strongly 

 recommend a dog at heel, to put out birds which have 

 been ' put in.' Well do I remember the want of one. 

 The memory plagues me even now. A falcon was 

 * waiting on,' and I could not find a grouse ; at last, up 

 got a snipe, and there was a splendid ringing flight ; the 

 snipe was soon out of sight in the sky, and the hawk, 

 if I saw her at all, did not look bigger than a butterfly. 

 At last, they came down ; the hawk had compelled her 

 quarry to do that. It was a ' put in,' only a hundred 

 yards or so from where I stood, in deep heather. I was 

 soon on the spot, as far as I could make it out ; but I 

 was alone, and the hawk was waiting above me ; she was 

 most patient. Oh for a dog ! At that moment I would 

 have half ruined myself for only the loan of a dog. I 

 was on my hands and knees turning over the heather, and 

 examining every hole; and this, perhaps, a dozen or twenty 

 yards from where the snipe had hid itself; I could not 

 mark the spot nearer. At last the hawk left me, and 

 went home, not half a mile away ; she could stand it 

 no longer. But this is a long digression. 



On the day I am writing about there was no dog, 

 but I had markers and beaters. The moor was small. 



