70 
my repast, and said so. Not so my grumbling attendant, who 
declared he could not eat for thinking of his sufferings there on 
the morrow morning, when his duty would be to come up by 
the first train to seek the lost hawk, or to sleep at Tetbury 
Road Station, which he dreaded more. Lost hawks, of which I 
shall not here treat, are, as I think they were in old days and 
in all climes, the bane of modern falconry! I had finished 
my lunch; my man had finished his pipe; and “ Fan” had 
finished the scraps. We were thinking of leaving for the 
railway station, whence we had come in the morning, for ’tis no 
use seeking a lost hawk in a series of deep wooded valleys—she 
must be sought when soaring high in air, looking out for her- 
self, above or outside of such country—when I heard a hawk’s 
bell sound, and instantly, with a swish of her wings, lo 
“Blanche” on the top of the gate-post over my head! I 
had not found her—she had found me, as in fact she always 
did, and as I was sure she would, unless she had killed, as I 
was afraid in this case she had, from her protracted absence : 
and to this day I do not know that she had not. It was certain 
she had not fed, however, by the look of her; so taking 
a partridge she had killed earlier in the day out of the bag, I 
flung it out to her close by, and she in her turn took her lunch, 
or, as our forefathers said, “her pleasure ” thereon, the old dog 
crawling gently up to her and licking her feet. 
Here my “paper” must needs come to an end. No one 
can this time, call it an untimely one; and in the length 
to which it has attained the writer admits he has taken 
full satisfaction, for the hurry of the Lecture Theatre. He 
regrets that this is not enough. Satisfaction should be given 
to readers and sportsmen alike; and he honestly believes that 
actually seeing, and taking part, in a well-managed, and suc- 
cessful flight, with a trained hawk is needed, to interest 
members of the Cotteswold Naturalists Field Club in so strange 
a pursuit as ‘“‘ Modern Falconry.” 
