220 THE RABBIT 



Riley, of Putley Court, Herefordshire, took 70 rabbits 

 in fifteen days, killing 10 on her best day. This was 

 in her third season. In her first year she took no 

 rabbits, 2 pheasants, 1 3 water-hens, and i rat ; in her 

 second season 130 rabbits, i pheasant, 3 water-hens, 

 and I stoat. The same falconer trained a male gos- 

 hawk, which in his first season took 26 partridges, 

 10 pheasants, 16 rabbits, 5 landrails, 12 water-hens, 

 and I stoat. 



In The Field of May 2, 1896, Sir Henry Boynton, 

 of Burton Agnes, Hull, wrote as follows : 



' It may interest some of your readers, who are 

 lovers of falconry, to learn what I have done with a 

 nestling goshawk which I brought from Nordland, 

 Norway, in June, 1895. She killed her first wild rabbit 

 on September 1 7. Her two best days were as follows : 

 the best 24 rabbits out of 24 flights ; the next best day 

 20 rabbits out of 24 flights. The hawk had through- 

 out the season, on an average, a three-quarter crop a 

 day, and was consequently in the very highest condi- 

 tion, which rendered her able to undergo the hardest 

 work that a hawk is capable of enduring. She was 

 flown on seventy days, and the total bag for the season 

 was : rabbits 407, hare i, rats 5, stoat i, weasel i, total 

 415 head ; and every one of the quarry mentioned was 

 killed in fair flight, without being handled in any way.' 



