GAME-HAWKING 125 



" made." The mischief of it is that you cannot, with grouse, 

 make sure of giving her these fair trials just when you wish. 

 Grouse are such "contrairy" birds, that you cannot always 

 find them when you have the best right to expect that you will. 

 You must, however, do your best ; and I, for one, verily believe 

 that the hawk knows when you are doing your best. Other- 

 wise, what is the moral of that pretty story, so well told by 

 " Peregrine," of the falcon which, finding the pointer rather slow 

 in putting up the covey, made a stoop at him by way of a 

 gentle hint, and then got up to her pitch again ? 



Black-game are still more difficult to take than grouse. An 

 old cock will hardly be taken unless from a good pitch and 

 under favourable circumstances. Grey-hens, however, have a 

 way early in the season of sometimes lying very close ; and 

 when this happens, and the hawk happens to be waiting on 

 near, she will cut the poor wretch down easily. With black- 

 game the first stoop is generally the most deadly, but it must 

 be made from a high pitch. A gerfalcon or tiercel stooping at 

 an old blackcock in a really open place is the perfection of 

 game-hawking, and from certain points of view — that of mere 

 speed, for instance — the ne plus ultra of all hawking. 



Partridges, on the other hand, are easier in all respects — 

 easier to find, easier to approach, easier to kill. The modus 

 operandi is exactly the same as for the larger game. If you 

 can work with a pointer or setter, so much the better ; the 

 hawk will generally know after a while what the dog means 

 and where the birds are likely to get up. An old game-hawk 

 will often display marvellous intelligence in waiting on in the 

 right position. When this is the case, and the country is good, 

 the bag fills rapidly. No sooner is there a point than off goes 

 the hood. After a short delay the hawk is at her pitch, and 

 you can walk or ride in. Any partridge must be clever which 

 avoids the first stoop of an old peregrine. Even if he does, 

 except in a country where there are thick covers, the fatal blow 

 is merely deferred. Putting in at a thin hedge is only a 

 temporary escape, for you can mark the place. The hawk will 

 mark it also, by making her point, i.e. throwing up into the air 

 over the spot, and she will wait on while you beat. A spaniel 

 or retriever will generally rout out the fugitive. The orthodox 

 cry for encouraging the hawk when the game is so routed out 

 is " Howit ! howit ! " Sometimes the partridge which has put 

 in is, as an old author says, " so surcharged with fear " as to be 

 caught by the dog or picked up by the hand. It should then 

 generally be thrown out for the hawk to take, especially if she 



