128 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAAVKING 



her quarry, and onwards after it is struck, that the talon will 

 not hold. Something in the body of the victim gives way — the 

 skin, or maybe a bone or two. Moreover, the strain upon a 

 falcon's foot, if she dragged along with her a heavy bird flying 

 only half as fast at the moment as herself, might be painful 

 and even dangerous. Consequently a hawk which has a very 

 " hard " stoop, as all passage gers have and many wild-caught 

 peregrines, will sometimes not endeavour to catch hold or bind. 

 They then "strike" in the truest sense of the word. They deal 

 a blow, either downwards or forwards, using the two hind talons 

 for it, and either break some bone or knock all the wind out of 

 the victim struck. The jar of the blow as they rush by tells 

 them that it has come home, and instead of throwing up high, 

 as they would if they had missed, they check their flight 

 quickly, and, swinging round in the air, descend rapidly on 

 the panting or dazed foe. Instances have been known when a 

 stoop has cut the head clean off from a grouse, and one of 

 Mr. Freeman's falcons cut through several ribs of a partridge 

 as she hit it down. And yet the ger's stoop is accounted much 

 " harder " than the peregrine's. 



Game-peregrines, when well entered, may very well be flown 

 four or five times a day. Some of them, when in good fettle, 

 more. Six kills in one day is a decided feat for a peregrine ; 

 though it has been accomplished in modern times, and probably 

 surpassed occasionally. But it is unwise to overdo the thing, 

 and so tax the hawk too severely. If you have a very high- 

 mounter, you may as well remember a piece of advice upon 

 which D'Arcussia insists. This is to fly her not many times in 

 any one day. Her high mounting is such a grand thing in itself, 

 he says, that it is better to maintain it, even if your bag and 

 your score suffer, than by letting her kill more — which she 

 could undoubtedly do — to run the risk of lowering her pitch. 

 If, however, a hawk has had bad luck, and still seems "full of 

 flying," you may go on after several unsuccessful flights in the 

 hope of rewarding her at last. It is a very good thing in all 

 sorts of hawking to " leave off with a kill." Accordingly, if 

 the third or fourth flight is successful, the wise falconer will 

 often feed up and leave well alone. I should like to go a little 

 further, and say that at any time after a very hard flight, in 

 which the hawk has triumphed over exceptional difficulties 

 and greatly exerted herself, it is a wise thing to feed up. " Oh, 

 do fly her again," is a seductive cry which some friend is likely 

 to raise. But though next time she could not fly better, she 

 might perhaps fly worse. I should be inclined to tell such 



