146 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



fugitive take to the open, where one of the hawks can get a 

 fair shot at him. But the latter must be staunch at waiting on, 

 good footers, and quick to take advantage of the efforts made 

 by their friends below. There is not much in this business of 

 what may be called the nobility of the noble sport, — none of 

 the long dashing stoops out of the clouds which you see in 

 grouse-hawking, or of the laborious mounting and ringing which 

 you had with the gull or rook. It rather resembles the hedge-row 

 driving described later on in the chapter on Sparrow-Hawks. 

 But for those who like bustle and excitement, and hard exercise 

 for the legs and voice, few things will beat magpie-hawking. 

 And few things will demonstrate more clearly the marvellous 

 adaptability of the peregrine to the exigencies of the case. A 

 wild hawk would have no chance with a magpie, unless he 

 caught him unawares, crossing from one bush or plantation to 

 another. But the trained hawk, knowing that the men are 

 working with him, joins his efforts with a good will to theirs, 

 and does exactly that which you want him to do, and which 

 it is best for him to do. As an example of co-operation 

 between man and hawk, a magpie-worry is not to be excelled. 

 Neither of the actors in the scene is any good without the 

 other ; and if either fails to do the right thing at the right 

 moment, the whole play is spoiled, and both players disgusted. 

 Tiercels, well assisted, and well worked at their quarry, make 

 very good bags. Mr. St. Quintin and Colonel Brooksbank, 

 with two tiercels, Meteor and Buccaneer, killed forty-five in one 

 campaign ; and several other capital scores have been made 

 within recent years. 



The green plover is such a common bird, and so easily 

 found in open ground, that it is a pity, in one sense, that he 

 cannot be flown. The unlearned may ask. Why not? The 

 answer is. Because no hawk is good enough to take him. By 

 which I do not mean that no peewit is ever taken by a pere- 

 grine. The wild peregrines take them not unfrequently ; and 

 trained ones have now and then succeeded in cutting one down. 

 But the attempt to make trained hawks take them regularly, 

 or even fly them for any length of time, has always failed. 

 John Barr, amongst others, trained some picked tiercels 

 specially for this quarry. When I saw him some time after he 

 had made this experiment, he assured me that to kill peewits 

 with trained hawks was impossible. Of course plovers of all 

 kinds are not more exempt than other creatures from the ills 

 that flesh is heir to. In fact, to judge from the tone of their 

 cry, and considering the way they have of sitting in wet feet 



