ee ee 8 ee 
61 
presence on the moor, but later on, in the season, they wont 
have it, from the dog, at all. We then cast off a steady hawk 
on reaching any likely place, or even on coming into sight of a 
likely place, as the shaking of a plaid will cause wild grouse to 
rise many hundred yards ahead. Well, the grouse have risen, 
and one of them for the very last time, for here comes down 
“Lady Jane”? Would that I could describe that singular 
stoop of hers better. It appears to begin, by her throwing her- 
self forward, some,—probably many,—yards, then over she turns, 
and head foremost she flies down earthwards, moving her wings 
rapidly with the most singular swiftness. Let the grouse rise 
wild—let them even come unexpectedly over a hill and under 
the hawk, and she is round, and down, and into the flying pack, 
or covey, with ease, that seems portentous to men used to their 
approach down wind, towards their huts, in a drive. ‘“‘ Lady 
Jane’s”’ stoop generally brings her down, a few yards behind her 
quarry: occasionally, but not often, on it. More commonly she 
becomes level, almost too quickly for eye to follow, and in- 
stantly is with the grouse she desires. *Tis all over with the poor 
thing then. A cloud of feathers, the sound of a heavy blow— 
if you were near enough to hear—and the grouse (dead, I think, 
very often, then) is hurled many a yard through the air, and falls 
on the ground. If this ground should be hard, I have seen a 
grouse so struck, down wind, bound again (in one case 18 yards) 
as they do when shot dead from the butts in a breeze. The blow 
is given by the falcon’s strong hind talon on each foot, usually as 
sharp as a needle, and driven at great speed by a bird weighing 
2 lbs. This blow is not to be despised. No hawk that stoops 
from a very lofty pitch can clutch or grasp her prey: she 
rushes upwards like a ball from a trap, a couple of gunshots 
high, turns over, and is on the grouse at once. There she sits, 
and with two or three powerful bites the grouse is literally 
decapitated, his head constantly lying beside him. The head 
and the neck (though too much, I know) are usually ‘“ Lady 
Jane’s” reward after every kill. She can kill four such grouse 
in a day—three are, however, enough; and she will be well fed 
on the last old grouse we may have taken, after her third 
