122 AKT AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



mounting ; but presently they will be aware also of your 

 approach. Then there will be a small debate in their minds — 

 or rather in that of their papa — whether it is best to keep still 

 and eventually be shot at, or to start off at once and at once 

 be stooped at. The nearer you approach, and the farther the 

 hawk rakes away, the more does the decision incline towards 

 making a bolt of it ; but papa grouse is not going to make a 

 fool of himself by bolting at the moment which you would 

 prefer. Your programme, of course, is to wait till your falcon 

 is heading in towards the dog, and then rush in upon the 

 hesitating assembly. Unfortunately, this plan does not fit in 

 with the views of the worthies in question. They have also 

 been waiting till the hawk's head was turned away, and now, as 

 she is near the outer part of her circle which is farthest from 

 the quarry, up they get, and off they go, whizzing along the 

 top of the heather. 



At this stage of the proceedings the modern falconer does, 

 for once, find the use of his voice. He shouts loudly to call the 

 hawk's attention and to cheer her on. " Hey, gar, gar, gar ! " 

 or " Hoo, ha, ha ! " are old-fashioned cries for encouraging a 

 falcon to stoop from her pitch, and are still often used. There 

 can be no doubt that a shout of some kind, or a blast on the 

 horn, if you prefer it, has an inspiriting effect on hawks, and that 

 not only when they start for their first descent, but at each 

 successive stoop. I almost fancy that I have actually seen 

 them cheer up as they heard a loud "Bravo" come from the 

 field far beneath after a brilliant stoop or a masterly throw-up ! 

 It is with grouse and black-game, more than with any other 

 quarry, that you see at once when they get up the immense 

 advantage of a high pitch. When the falcon is some hundreds 

 of feet high she commands a wide area below. At the height 

 of a quarter of a mile it matters little whether the range of her 

 circling flight takes her a hundred yards to one side or the 

 other. She can come down with equal ease upon any one spot 

 in an area of thirty acres. 



No one knows how the speed and force of a falcon's stoop 

 are gained. All we can say is that it is the fastest movement 

 made by any living thing in the world. It is not flying, and it 

 is not falling, but a combination of the two, with some other 

 impulse which we do not understand. Mere weight must be at 

 least a most important element, for a heavy hawk seems always 

 to come down quicker as well as far more forcibly than one of 

 the same species which is lighter. But weight is only one factor 

 in the agglomeration of influences which make the stoop of the 



