THE GOSHAWK 155 



at hares rather overtaxes the powers of any except the strongest 

 female goshawks ; and many people think that the flight at 

 rabbits is preferable, even in the quality of sport afforded. In 

 fact, the difference between the two is not so much one of speed 

 as of brute strength ; and in quickness the rabbit will be found 

 generally superior. A goshawk which will take hares is the 

 more valuable ; but it is doubtful if she shows any better sport. 

 Gaiety Girl, whose portrait is given, changed hands at ;^20, and 

 was well worth the money. This hawk, trained by Mr. A. 

 Newall on Salisbury Plain, killed no less than fifty-five hares 

 in one season, besides other quarry. Of course if goshawks 

 are to be flown at hares, they must be left strictly to this quarry 

 as far as possible, and not encouraged to ever look at a rabbit. 



The goshawk has one great advantage over her nobler cousin, 

 the peregrine ; she need not necessarily stop when her quarry 

 has gone into covert. Provided only that the covert is thin 

 enough for her to see the quarry, and to get along, she will stick 

 to him there as pertinaciously as in the open. She will natu- 

 rally not be so likely to succeed ; trees and bushes will impede 

 her stoops, and give the quarry a far better chance of doubling 

 out of the way. But it is astonishing how clever even an eyess 

 goshawk can be in threading her way through covert, and 

 choosing the moment when a dash can be made. The hare is 

 not as well able to use her natural cunning in front of a hawk as 

 in front of a hound. The whole affair is so rapid, and the danger 

 behind is so pressing, that there is hardly time to devise, and still 

 less to put in practice, those tricks which are so successful in 

 hare-hunting. If one could only see it all, possibly the flight at 

 a hare in a thin covert would be better worth seeing than a 

 flight in the open. At anyrate, the skill exhibited by the hawk 

 must be greater. For she not only has to keep the quarry in 

 view, and|to make straight shots at him, but also in doing so 

 to avoid breaking her wing tips, or even her neck, against an 

 intervening tree. 



The wild rush of the falconer — or ostringer — and his friends 

 after a flight at a hare in covert is also a thing to be seen. It is 

 unique of its kind. In magpie-hawking there is a lot of hurry- 

 ing up, much tumbling about, much laughter, and any amount of 

 shouting and noise ; but there is not the same necessity for head- 

 long racing through the thicket. If you want to be " in it " with 

 a goshawk, you must go at a break-neck speed over or through 

 all obstacles ; you must be able to see through screens of inter- 

 lacing boughs, and dash through almost impervious places. 

 You must cut off corners by instinct and follow by inspiration. 



