CHAPTER XVIII 



Virtue and Vice 



CONSIDERING the great variety which exists in the char- 

 acter, shape, size, colour, and appearance of hawks, it 

 may be easily supposed that they differ also in strength, speed, 

 and general capability. Perhaps the most notable of all points 

 in which they are distinguished is in the matter of temper. 

 Not only will the young birds from different eyries be unlike 

 in this respect, but the very same nest may produce one good- 

 tempered hawk, and another sulky ; one bold and confiding, 

 another timid and suspicious ; one vivacious and greedy after 

 her food, and another dull, sluggish, and indifferent about her 

 meals. Nor are these discrepancies the result, apparently, of 

 any different dieting or treatment. They exhibit themselves 

 in eyesses in the very earliest days of hack, or even before, and 

 usually continue for a long time, if not for life. No doubt a 

 good-tempered hawk may, by falling into bad hands, be 

 changed into a bad-tempered one ; and some of those which 

 seemed worst tempered when first caught, or when first taken 

 up from hack, have by skilful management become quite 

 amiable and well-behaved. But the amount of care and art 

 required for the one sort is very different from that needed for 

 the other ; and very few beginners will be likely to achieve 

 much success with a pupil which is thoroughly unmanageable by 

 nature. Sparrow-hawks, especially eyesses, are, as has already 

 been said, the most naturally untamable of the hawks usually 

 trained, with golden eagles a pretty good second ; and the most 

 amenable are hobbies and merlins, which often seem as if they 

 rather liked being trained. Nothing more need be said here 

 about tempers than that with a troublesome pupil the trainer 

 must be extra patient and extra cautious, and be continually on 

 his guard against making a mistake. Hawks are from their 

 earliest days very good judges of character ; and the more dis- 

 trustful and apt to take offence any one of them may be, the more 



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