THE SPARROW-HAWK 167 



bough, though her yellow eyes glitter with excitement, and her 

 legs and wings are ready for a start the moment that a black 

 feather shows itself. It is equally hard to grab an old cock 

 blackbird in the hedge, or to drive him out of it far enough to 

 give the hawk a chance of a fair shot. As for the thrushes, 

 they seem to puzzle a sparrow-hawk more even than the wiliest 

 of their black cousins. They have more wing-power, too, and 

 are apt to distance her in fair flight. A starling is, I believe, 

 not an easy bird to take if he has anything of a start. Wood- 

 pigeons, when taken by wild sparrow-hawks, must probably be 

 caught unawares. 



A small wiry-haired dog which is not afraid of thorns will 

 often be useful. Sandy is not without his honours in the hawk- 

 ing-field. Many a blackbird has he snapped up in his mouth 

 within a yard of his formidable ally, in whose presence the 

 quarry thinks that almost anything is preferable to a flight 

 across the open. Then the victim is, of course, taken from him 

 — often unhurt — for Sandy is too well bred and too well trained 

 to injure it if he can help doing so ; and with the orthodox cry 

 of " Ware, hawk ! ware !" is thrown out to the hawk. Water-hens 

 are a rather favourite quarry for the female sparrow-hawk, as 

 well as for the goshawk, when she is not a very distinguished 

 performer. A water-spaniel which knows how to work with a 

 hawk is in each case very useful. Landrails would afford a 

 capital flight if they were plentiful enough, and could be 

 induced to give themselves a fair start, instead of waiting to be 

 kicked up when the hawk is close upon them. 



But perhaps the best flight of all, next to partridges, is at 

 the quail, and it is one in which the musket can be employed as 

 well as his sister. The Italian authorities, upon whom Turber- 

 vile draws for the chief part of his treatise on falconry, speak 

 of the quail as the special quarry of the sparrow-hawk, and give 

 minute directions for this flight, which could, of course, be had 

 in perfection in the Egyptian paddy-fields, and in other parts 

 of the East. It is said that some of the tribes tributary to the 

 Grand Turk, who had to pay their tribute in quails, used to provide 

 themselves by means of sparrow-hawks alone with the neces- 

 sary number of birds. The African falconers, when in pursuit 

 of quails, take the sparrow-hawk round the body in their right 

 hand, and as the quarry rises throw her at them like a round- 

 hand bowler, thereby giving her an initial impetus, of which she 

 seems fully to understand the advantage. In some places they 

 surround the neck of the hawk with a halschband, or linen collar. 



