88 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



fingers of the gloved left hand, invite her to step on to them and 

 to the knuckles. The next short step is to get her to jump 

 from the perch to the hand. When once she will do this, even 

 if the jump is one of an inch only, the distance can soon be 

 made much greater. But in order to succeed with this lesson 

 she must not be tantalised. It is no good to stand for five 

 minutes with the left hand outstretched and a piece of meat on 

 or near it within six inches of your hawk, when she is in no 

 humour to make the leap which seems to her so perilous. 

 When she will not come, humour her, and put the meat nearer, 

 so that she can get it without jumping. Sooner or later she 

 will find that the meat so placed before her is not a trap or a 

 sham, but really meant for her delectation, and that she can get 

 it a little quicker if she chooses to go for it. There is no use 

 in telling her the story of Mahomet and the mountain, but you 

 can illustrate the theory by a sort of practical dumb-show. If 

 a more advanced pupil is placed on the perch next to the slow 

 learner, the latter will see how much quicker her sister gets the 

 proffered delicacies by jumping for them. As soon as she will 

 come a little way from the screen-perch, try her from a block, 

 and then from a gate-post out of doors. Keep her at this exer- 

 cise for some days, but do not make a toil of it to her ; merely 

 let her know that if she comes for it, she will get the tit-bit 

 at once, whereas, if she does not, she will get it all the later. 



Next comes the lure. Passage hawks are notoriously and 

 naturally bad at the lure. Nothing in their previous experience 

 at all leads up to it ; and you have to teach them an entirely 

 new lesson. Consequently, you must take pains about it, and 

 be prepared for disappointments and delays. The lure is as 

 important to the falconer as a hook to a fisherman, or a bridle 

 to a rider. To take a long-winged hawk out to the field with- 

 out a lure would be almost as silly as to go out shooting without 

 any cartridges. When first introduced to the pupil the lure 

 must be well garnished with attractive and palatable viands. 

 It is by no means enough to throw down a freshly-killed pigeon 

 in front of the hungry hawk. She is quite likely, if a passager, 

 to stare at it absently, and apparently without any very defined 

 belief that it is at all good to eat. After a minute or so she 

 is not unlikely to look the other way, and pay no more attention 

 to your well-intended bait. But you must not then be sur- 

 prised, or begin exclaiming at her "stupidity." If the passager 

 will not come to the dead pigeon, take a lure and cover it with 

 chopped meat. Give her pieces off this, and presently let her 

 pick them off it. Then let her walk towards the lure to get the 



