; 
: 
| 
. 
| 
. 
| 
49 
its wings fast pinioned to its sides, an easy hood on its head, 
and its feet and legs manacled with soft list—a change as 
strange as rapid, and one that must be seen to be believed. 
One, two, or even three, such hawks, are occasionally thus 
captured at a single ‘“‘ hut” in the day, though as often, whole 
days pass, without anything to excite the restless vigilance of 
the butcher bird sentinel. Buzzards, goshawks, sparrowhawks, 
merlins, and even, I think, an occasional eagle have thus also 
fallen a prey to the Valkenswaard falconers. In the evening 
the captures of the day (still in the mummy state) are taken 
from the hut to Valkenswaard, where a red, or young peregrine, 
is worth about £4. 
As neither falconry nor hawking are longer practised 
in Holland, there is no need for the Valkenswaard hawks to be 
trained there. They are all ordered previously, by English and 
French falconers, and I think, at present, by no others, and 
when ready for removal, servants are sent for these falcons, or 
hawks, or occasionally a falconer or naturalist anxious to see 
with his own eyes the singular process of capture, and to enjoy 
the further sight of the long row of lovely peregrines (no 
longer mummies,) but sitting bolt upright on the pole-screen, 
with hood on head, jesses on leg, and attached by swivel and 
leash to the pole, whereon they stand. However, as a fort- 
night’s care and gentle handling are usually bestowed on the 
captured hawks by Mollen and his sons (and I believe daugh- 
ters) and his assistants, it may be well to mention the ordinary 
steps for taming so wild a creature, and eventually rendering 
her so docile and obedient as to “ wait on” high in air, wholly 
her own mistress, and as free as when she first was observed by 
our butcher bird, and herself observed the cobbler’s offered 
pigeon: but this time for the purpose, perchance, of striking to 
earth, with the self-same sort of stoop, a grouse or a partridge 
even now lying perdue in front of her owner’s well-trained 
and motionless dogs, amongst the Northumberland heather. 
The newly caught hawk, when her furniture as above, has been 
supplied, and the sharp point of her beak, and the yet sharper 
points of her black talons have been slightly coped, or 
E 
