LOST HAWKS 217 



a stray peregrine or goshawk may well cast a hungry glance, 

 but their shelter is always a tempting haven for any wandering 

 house-pigeon which may have been chased and bested in the 

 air. As the falconer proceeds from place to place, swinging his 

 lure and calling or whistling, if it is his custom to use such 

 means of bringing up his hawk, he should note the behaviour 

 of the rooks and other birds within sight. The presence of any 

 hawk, especially if carrying a bell, causes some excitement 

 amongst the feathered world. The unwarlike wanderers of the 

 air, when an armed cruiser comes in sight, exhibit some such 

 signs of panic as might be expected of a fleet of merchantmen 

 if a hostile battleship were viewed in the offing. The symptoms 

 most remarkable are generally those observed in a flight of rooks, 

 which often begins to whirl about in the air, as if it were com- 

 posed of escaped lunatics, shooting up and wheeling suddenly 

 in unexpected directions, filling the air at the same time with 

 discordant croaks and screams, and with big black specks, which 

 hurl themselves about as if driven by impulses which they them- 

 selves cannot understand or control. But many other birds, by 

 their strange movements and queer attitudes, will betray the 

 near presence of a hawk to whose visits they are unaccustomed. 

 When a hawk has killed anything, and is pluming or eating it, 

 crows, magpies, and jays have a way of sitting on the top of a 

 neighbouring tree, craning their necks, and peering down with 

 a morbid curiosity as they watch an operation of which they 

 strongly disapprove. 



Rooks, starlings, and small birds are all fond of mobbing a 

 strange hawk when they think they can do it with impunity, 

 and swallows occasionally indulge in the same rather adventurous 

 amusement. It is therefore often worth while to make a detour 

 and investigate, whenever any bird seems to be engaged in 

 eccentric and unusual movements. Of the thousand and one 

 causes which may have given rise to such vagaries, only the 

 most practised eye can determine which are likely to be con- 

 nected with the appearance of the lost hawk, and which are not. 

 The safest plan is to go up and make sure that the commotion 

 is not to be explained in this way. Of course when a hawk 

 has been in the habit of flying any particular quarry, a disturb- 

 ance amongst birds of that species is more likely to arise from 

 her presence than in other cases. But most peregrines, when 

 they are at large, are fond of taking occasional shots at lapwings, 

 though very seldom with success. Merlins, though they are 

 most partial to skylarks, will make stoops at any bird which 



