OTTER HUNTING, FALCONRY, SHOOTING 135 



towards the head ; take this and pass the live one to him 

 to be adroitly killed bv the usual neck-breaking process : 

 allow the hawk to take a mouthful from the dead rabbit, 

 and whilst she is eating lift her on the glove, holding 

 the jesses firmly : she is then ready for another flight. 

 Some goshawks will take hares, but if they are used for 

 that quarry, they must not be allowed to fly rabbits ; if 

 they are, they will look for the easier flight, and scarcely 

 care for the more difiicult. 



The female bird only is used for hares and rabbits. 

 The male will fly pheasants well, and indeed partridges, 

 but he is hardly fast enough to be quite relied on for 

 a strong full-grown partridge, at any rate in flight : he 

 may drive his quarry into low cover where a dog may 

 take it. 



A goshawk must be in ' yarak ' before she is flown. 

 Unless this is so, leave her on her perch, for she will 

 be of no use whatever. What therefore is yarak .'' I 

 quote from my little book, How I became a Falconer. 

 A goshawk in yarak is : " simply when she is in a good 

 temper, decidedly hungry, and eager for quarry. She gives 

 two or three screams at your approach, and probably bates 

 towards you ; she sets out her feathers, making herself 

 look large ; has a peculiar look in her yellow eyes — a sort 

 of mixture of earnestness and amiability . . . beware of 

 the opposite symptoms. It is no use taking her from her 

 perch if she gives a chirping sound, very different from 

 the scream ; if she has a wild eye, with contracted pupil ; 



