266 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



striking at it without catching hold, or at least coming down 

 with it to the ground. To do them justice, they seldom go far 

 away, but often look as if they meant to do so, which, indeed, 

 they occasionally do, especially at migrating times. But a 

 peregrine which has taken to the soar often seems so engrossed 

 in the pleasant occupation as to forget all about mundane 

 affairs, and, sailing along in ever-widening circles, drifts farther 

 and farther down-wind, until the falconer, if unmounted, can 

 keep her in view no longer. Then, when she is beginning to tire 

 of her amusement, and to remember that she has, after all, a 

 crop to fill, she will very likely wing her way back to where she 

 last saw the falconer wistfully swinging her despised lure. But 

 what if an unlucky pigeon then heaves in sight? or if some 

 unsuspecting yokel puts up a partridge or a rook ? There is 

 nothing to prevent her from having a shot at it : and, if she 

 kills, good-bye to my lady for that day. If you find her, it will 

 be more by good luck than anything else. 



Hawks will go soaring because they are short of exercise, 

 because they feel hot from insufficient bathing, or because, 

 not being particularly hungry, they prefer a few minutes' free 

 roaming about to immediately dining. Consequently a hawk 

 which has shown herself fond of the practice and slow at coming 

 to the dead lure, should be offered a bath whenever she is at all 

 likely to take it — once a day, in very hot weather. She should 

 have lots of flying and stooping to the lure, for, as she is fond 

 of the upper air, there is the less chance of her hanging about 

 round the falconer and spoiling her pitch. Finally, she should 

 be a bit keen after her food before she is put on the wing. 

 Soaring and waiting on are analogous things, or rather they 

 are the same with a difference. The best game-hawks, which 

 wait on mountains high, are soaring as they do so ; that is, the 

 movement of the wings is the same, but the difference is that 

 the waiter-on is, as it were, anchored to a fixed point below — 

 the man or the dog, whereas the soarer is merely floating about 

 like a yacht which has no particular destination. 



The vice of raking away differs only from that of soaring 

 away by the fact that it may be done at any height. Half- 

 trained hawks, before they have done any real work in the 

 field, are very apt to wait on in the wrong place. They know 

 as much as that they are expected to keep within sight of the 

 falconer, but not that they ought to be directly overhead ; and, 

 through laziness, or because they prefer stooping at the lure 

 up-wind, they allow themselves to drift away to lee. Hardly 



