138 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



can fly towards the nearest place where he thinks he can save 

 himself. These larks are sometimes pretty fast, and take a 

 good deal of catching, dodging the stoops by shifting to right 

 or left, and sometimes avoiding a good many. But more often, 

 especially in an enclosed country, they are wretched creatures, 

 taken easily by a fast hawk, either in the air or by being driven 

 into insufficient cover. These are the sort of larks that be- 

 ginners are sometimes very proud of killing. The true falconer 

 detests them as a sad nuisance. It is true that when they are 

 fast and clever, they improve the hawk's footing powers, and 

 give her a sharp burst of hard flying. Such a flight serves as a 

 short gallop at full speed does to a horse in training. But from 

 the sporting point of view it is objectionable. Fortunately, on 

 the open down, it is not common. 



Secondly, there are the "mounting" larks, which go up and 

 try to keep the air. The original ambition of these larks is to 

 fairly out-fly the hawk, and never let her get above them. But 

 at moulting-time they can seldom hope to accomplish this if 

 the hawk is a fast one in really good condition. Sometimes, 

 going wide of them, and making an upper-cut, she will bind to 

 them at the first shot. But this is rare. Generally there are 

 several stoops ; and the whole business very accurately resembles 

 a coursing match. The stoops are made from all sorts of dis- 

 tances, — short and long, upwards and downwards, with the wind 

 and against it. I have seen a stoop by a trained merlin — a jack, 

 rather — which was 300 yds. long, measured along the ground, 

 to which must be added something for the height. Very often, 

 when the lark has escaped one stoop by a hair's-breadth, and 

 feels a conviction that next time he will not escape at all, he 

 drops headlong towards a place of supposed shelter, with the 

 hawk close at his heels. The harder he is pressed, the more 

 indifferent will be the hiding-place with which he is fain to be 

 content. Before a first-rate hawk he will go to a bare hurdle, a 

 flat-sided rick, or a tuft of grass, whereas if he has less trouble in 

 shifting, he will pass over all these attractions, and continue to 

 throw out the pursuer — though with exhausting efforts — till he 

 can get to a thick hedge or a substantial spinny. With this 

 kind of lark you may have more flights, more running, and 

 more excitement with a moderate merlin than with those of 

 the very first quality. The latter are a bit too good for the 

 work, and make the flight too short. Strangers who come out 

 hawking and see a mounting lark so taken, are apt to say : 

 "What a bad lark to be caught so soon !" It is often not the 

 badness of the lark, but the goodness of the hawk, which makes 



