96 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



but firmly to the string, and give her still more time before 

 again approaching her. The art of " making in " should be 

 studied and practised from the first. You will afterwards be 

 amply repaid for all your trouble. See the important remarks 

 made on this subject in Chapter IX. 



When you have secured the quarry, keep down for at least 

 two or three minutes more, and let the hawk begin feeding at 

 her ease on it, or on the pigeon which you may have substituted. 

 Help her to find the best pieces. You may talk to her in 

 encouraging words, if such is your habit, while she is eating. 

 Then slowly get up, lifting the food, and the hawk upon it, 

 without any haste or jerking. Let her have nearly a full crop 

 — the reward of good behaviour — and subject her to no chance 

 of annoyance or interference all the rest of the day. 



These instructions may seem lengthy and needlessly minute. 

 If they are, it is a fault on the right side. You are at a critical 

 stage now in your pupil's education. You are " making" her to 

 the business which is henceforth to be the business of her life ; 

 and a little extra precaution is justifiable in order to ensure 

 that the lesson you are teaching shall be well learnt. As the 

 hawk finds by experience that you approach her with no pre- 

 datory intentions, but rather to help her and add to her enjoy- 

 ment of her meal, she will gain confidence, and be less and less 

 inclined to misbehave herself by bolting. And as her mistrust 

 diminishes so will your trouble be lessened, until at last you will 

 be able to make in without any of these precautions and delays. 

 Whereas, if you are negligent or over-confident at first, you may 

 end by not being able to make in to her at all, and may have the 

 mortification of having been for some weeks the owner of a fine 

 hawk which could fly admirably, but which, after one of her first 

 few flights at wild quarry, literally "vanished into thin air." 



The training required for hawks which are to " wait on " is 

 different. It has already been said that merlins and the short- 

 winged hawks cannot be taught this accomplishment. A merlin 

 which will wait on even for half a minute is rather a phenomenon. 

 I have had such an one, it is true, but only one. The thing is 

 not impossible in all cases, but so rarely practicable that it is 

 needless to speak of it. Nor is it advisable to teach the art of 

 waiting on to any hawk which is intended to be flown at rooks, 

 gulls, heron, or the like. But all long-winged hawks intended 

 for game should wait on well. The whole race of peregrines 

 and their cousins, gers, hobbies, sakers, lanners, and the humble 

 kestrel, can all be made to wait on beautifully. Soaring (to 

 which waiting on is so nearly similar) is the natural exercise of 



