196 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



mistake to make in too quickly, so as to alarm the hawk, yet it 

 is not wise to defer too long the business of taking up. For it 

 is always possible that a stray dog may rush in, or some other 

 accident occur which may frighten the hawk just at the time 

 when you most wish to save her from any such alarm. 



If for any reason you wish your hawk to eat her quarry 

 where she has killed, attach the leash to her jesses and to a peg 

 in the ground, or to a field-block, leaving a man to watch her 

 and keep a sharp look-out against intruders. Although in the 

 very open country, where alone the long-winged hawks ought 

 to be flown, there are not many interlopers in the shape of stray 

 dogs or tourists, yet it is wonderful how, with a little bad 

 luck at his heels, the falconer may be annoyed by unexpected 

 intruders. I well remember a valuable hawk being lost on 

 Salisbury Plain, not far from Stonehenge, by the appearance on 

 the scene of an object which one would hardly expect to see 

 there, three miles from the nearest village. The hawk, which 

 was a bit shy to take up, was discussing a well-earned meal 

 upon a heap of stones by the side of a cart-road, when along 

 this road came a nurse-maid with a gaudy-hooded peram- 

 bulator. She got past the hawk, but not without exciting a 

 large share of its attention. Unfortunately, however, she caught 

 sight of the falconers hurrying up, and then of the hawk, and 

 with that feeling of curiosity which seems to be strongly 

 developed in the genus nurse-maid, turned the perambulator 

 round, and began wheeling it straight towards the hawk. This 

 was altogether too much for the latter. Convinced that some 

 deadly mischief lurked in the strange machine approaching, she 

 picked up the remains of her quarry, and, taking it off with her, 

 could not be afterwards approached. 



Only when the falconer is seen to have secured the victorious 

 hawk, and attached the leash to her jesses, is it permitted to the 

 field to go up. When time is precious, and there are a lot of 

 hawks to be flown, the line of march may proceed, leaving the 

 work of taking up the successful hawk to him who flew her ; 

 and when the next quarry is put up, the next hawk in order 

 may be thrown off by the man who carries her. Otherwise it 

 is best to get one flight altogether done with before another is 

 started. When the quarry has beaten off his pursuers and got 

 away, a lure or lures must be put in requisition ; and one man, 

 if he can be spared, should remain, with lure in hand, near the 

 place where the hawk, if out of sight, was last seen. The others 

 will follow on, more or less quickly, in the direction she seemed 



