TRAINING AND ENTERING 89 



pieces, as she has ah"eady learnt to go to the fist. When once 

 she has walked even three inches to it she can soon be made to 

 fly to it right across the lawn. 



Prolong these lessons, therefore, till your hawk is well " made 

 to the lure." Each day at feeding-time make her come a 

 longer and longer distance to it for her dinner. After a while 

 she will be flown to it in a creance, that is, a line attached to 

 the end of the leash, or, better still, to the swivel, from which the 

 leash has been detached. The best way to give the lesson is to 

 get an under-falconer or assistant to hold the hawk on his fist 

 in an open piece of ground, and then, going a little way off, to 

 show her the lure, on which she knows by experience that her 

 food is fastened. In the case of eyesses which have been hacked 

 to the lure they are of course well habituated to the business in 

 hand. But all hawks, if properly treated, will after a time learn 

 to look with some eagerness, at the dinner hour, for the appear- 

 ance of the lure. Peregrines and all the bigger hawks will be 

 hooded up before going out ; and when the hood is taken off 

 they will glance around in search of the trainer. As soon as 

 they discern him swinging his lure, they should jump off and 

 fly towards it, and, when it is thrown on the ground, alight on 

 it. Merlins and sparrow-hawks may generally be set down on 

 a post, and lured from it by the same person who took them 

 out, without the need of an assistant. Or, when they know the 

 lure sufficiently, it may be attached to the far end of the creance, 

 and, after being swung once or twice, thrown to a short distance, 

 and the little hawk thrown off at the same time, when she is 

 pretty sure to go straight to it. These exercises at the lure 

 should be continued till there is no longer any reasonable doubt 

 that the pupil will come as soon as she has the chance ; and, in 

 order to make sure, the length of the creance may be increased 

 from a few feet to at least a hundred yards. It will be a proud 

 moment when first you trust your passage hawk entirely free, 

 and, detaching the swivel from her jesses, abandon for the 

 moment all actual control over her. On this occasion you will 

 probably take extra precautions, making sure that no intruder 

 will interrupt the operations, and that your hawk is undeniably 

 sharp-set. But in order to make certain of this, do not dream 

 of starving her ; merely put off the feeding-time for an hour or 

 so. Hawks in captivity should commonly be fed, as will be 

 seen later on, at about 1 1 a.m. When you first fly your passage 

 hawk free, wait until past noon. The small e.xtra delay will 

 have put an edge on her appetite. If all goes well she will not 

 notice or suspect that anything unusual is occurring. Very 



