EYESSES AND HACK HAWKS 65 



tomed to bathe early in the day, so that when they are old they 

 will not depart from this godly habit. Plenty of blocks should 

 stand around, on which the bathed hawks may stand to sun and 

 air themselves. 



The longer the period of hack can be safely protracted the 

 better for the hack hawk and her trainer. All the while she is 

 learning to fly. During the latter part she is also learning to 

 chase and to stoop. Here it is that the danger comes in. 

 For in that ardour of youthful chase what kills may come ! 

 At first the random shots made from tall tree-tops at passing 

 swallows will be wide enough of the mark. Even the young 

 missel-thrushes or wood-pigeons which have frequented the 

 hack ground will make light of the clumsy efforts made to 

 cut them down ; and the house-pigeons from the nearest dove- 

 cot will treat with supreme contempt the well-meaning but 

 awkward stoops made at them. But every day finds the 

 young hawks more expert, as well as stronger on the wing. 

 The long feathers are now all down. The shafts harden, and 

 no longer bend perceptibly as the wing-tips strike the air. 

 Presently the flights at wild birds are no longer mere child's 

 play. The fugitives have to exert themselves to save their 

 skins. Very likely the young hunters of the air are not at first 

 altogether in earnest. Secure of their food at the hack board 

 or lure or fist, and trusting to it for their subsistence, they are 

 merely " having a lark " with the intruders on what has begun 

 to be their domain. But it is increasingly difficult to know how 

 much of their endeavours is play and how much real business. 

 Be sure, however, that when any stoop, whether playful or not, 

 proves successful, and the unfortunate victim is in the pursuer's 

 clutch, there will be no more play ; and on some lonely patch 

 of ground not fifty miles from the hack field there will be left 

 a litter of feathers, the mortal remains of the first quarry killed 

 by hawks of the }'ear. 



Let me here quote from my hawk diary: " 12 noon ; out 

 to hack field, and follow a blackbird down Butt's orchard hedge. 

 Nearing the corner, blackbird (young cock) takes across the 

 orchard. Drop him, winged, as he goes over the front hedge ; 

 and he falls in the hack field. Jubilee [eyess male merlin] is 

 on a block in the middle of it, 90 yards off. It is his third 

 day out. As the blackbird falls, he starts, and, stooping at it 

 as it runs, takes it, kills it, and begins to plume it like a wild 

 hawk before I get up." Pretty sharp work this for a little 

 hawk that had never used his wings till the day before yester- 

 day. But this capture of a winged bird was not counted as a 



