LARK-HAWKING 139 



short work of the flight. The mounting lark would always be a 

 ringer if the hawk was not fast enough to get above him quickly. 

 The third sort of lark is the veritable " ringer." With the 

 start he has, he keeps ahead of the hawk, climbing up in spiral 

 circles. Why not in a straight line ? I believe no one can tell 

 the reason. Possibly he finds that he can get on more pace by 

 having the wind now in front, now at the back, and between 

 whiles at the side. The curious thing is that the hawk adopts 

 the same tactics. The one bird may be circling from right to 

 left, and the other in the contrary direction. Neither seems 

 to guide the direction of his rings by any reference to those 

 which the other is making. It is now a struggle which can get 

 up the fastest. And it is astonishing to what a height such 

 flights will sometimes go. Not in a bad country ; for there 

 there will always be cover available after the quarry has gone 

 up a little way. And he will not be such a fool as to stand the 

 racket of a shot in the air, when by dropping into a stout hedge 

 or plantation he can make sure of his escape. As soon as a 

 lark is 800 ft. high, he can drop, almost like a stone, into 

 any covert within a radius of 200 yds. from the spot just 

 under him — allowance being made, of course, for the effect of 

 wind. But 800 ft. is not high for a ringing flight. At least 

 there is nothing at all unusual in it. A lark does not go out of 

 sight until he is much above that height ; and it is no extra- 

 ordinary thing for him to do this. I have heard it said that 

 merlins go up after larks till they are themselves lost to sight. 

 But it is very seldom that any man is directly below the hawk 

 at the time when she is highest. I know one case, how- 

 ever, in which a jack-merlin came right over the markers as 

 they were running down-wind, more than half a mile from the 

 start. He must have been very nearly over their heads when 

 he went up out of their sight. But that hawk was never seen 

 again. It is, of course, quite possible that such a thing should 

 occur. But I have never seen any country in England where it 

 is at all likely. For from such a height — nearly half a mile 

 high — there would always be a safe place into which the quarry 

 might drop. And if hard pressed, he would do so. When a 

 lark keeps up as long as this, it is generally because he knows 

 that he is the better man of the two. And before that time the 

 hawk will also have found this out. 



Larks are in moult from the beginning of August, which is 

 the earliest time that an eyess merlin can fly, till the middle of 

 September — in some years till nearly the end. During this 

 time, easy ones will mostly be found in the stubbles from which 



