21 G ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



afternoon seven or eight miles from the place where she was 

 lost sight of To explore at all thoroughly an area eight miles 

 long and ten broad at the far end means, of course, a great many 

 miles travelling, even if the country is exceptionally open and 

 clear of trees. Nevertheless, the dull and dreary journey must 

 be undertaken if there is a real desire to recover the wanderer. 

 The best hawk-finder is he who travels the farthest and sees the 

 greatest number of possible assistants in his search. If you 

 make an excuse for shirking a visit to a particular copse or 

 valley, it is as likely as not that you will hear afterwards, to 

 your chagrin, that the missing hawk was seen there, and might 

 easily have been caught. If you will not walk a quarter of a 

 mile out of the way to hail a passer-by who is going in what 

 you think an unlikely direction, that will perhaps be the very 

 man who, ten minutes afterwards, comes across the object of 

 your pursuit. 



There is not much to guide a man in choosing what direc- 

 tion he should prefer for going about his search. But, other 

 influences being equal, the truant is more likely to have gone 

 down-wind than up. Weak hawks especially, when they have no 

 particular object in facing the wind, are apt to shirk the trouble 

 of flying against it, and drift away to leeward. Of course, if it 

 is an eyess that has gone astray, and the place where she was 

 hacked is within easy reach, there is a more or less strong proba- 

 bility that she may have gone towards it. Eyess hobbies, when 

 lost, are said almost invariably to go back to the hack place 

 in this way. Merlins have been known to do so, though not 

 within my own experience. But a really strong and fast hawk, 

 in full flying order, seems often to assume almost at once the 

 role of a wild one. Such a hawk, especially if fond of soaring, 

 soon sees that there will be little difficulty in finding her own 

 living. And she sets about it without any particular influence 

 to guide her, starting in whatever direction chance may decide, 

 and shifting her ground as capriciously as it is possible to ima- 

 gine. When Tagrag, already mentioned, was out, he would be 

 reported one night in a certain plantation, and early the next 

 morning would be seen three or four miles off on the opposite 

 side of the small village where he ought to have been housed, 

 and where his brothers were (or ought to have been) lamenting 

 his absence from the screen-perch. 



Farm-houses and all habitations near the spot where a hawk 

 was lost should be visited without delay. Not only are they 

 generally frequented by either pigeons or fowls, towards which 



