38 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



this, and one which can bite so terribly ; but 

 at any rate the bird can hold a fox, and even if 

 it only swooped at the wolf and knocked him 

 over, this would be of great assistance to the 

 hunters who are following him. A trained 

 eagle is, of course, very much harder to 

 manage than a hawk ; it can go long without 

 food, and has to be starved some days to 

 make it really fierce, and it is far too heavy to 

 be held up on a man's wrist, so its owner has a 

 sort of crutch-handle fastened to his saddle, 

 which he holds in one hand, and this supports 

 the arm on which the eagle sits. Another 

 difficulty about the trained eagle is, that if it 

 is disappointed in catching the animal it is 

 sent after, it is very likely to come back in a 

 rage and try to knock its master over, so that 

 hawking with the eagle is not exactly a sport 

 for boys. However, it is certainly the finest 

 sort of hawking, and putting the king of birds 

 into training to help us against one of our 

 greatest animal enemies, the wolf, is the most 

 remarkable thing that has ever been done in 

 the way of bird management. 



