218 EEMIXISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



near Poole, had there a hawking establishment. His 

 trainers and his hawks came from Holland.* The exten- 

 sive backwater which flows from the sea towards War eh am 

 is in the winter well stocked with wild-fowl, which 

 afforded excellent sport to the falconer. I have before 

 mentioned that Captain Sturt first introduced the 

 peregrine falcon into this part of the country, to the 

 great annoyance of the gamekeepers. 



Mr. Newcome recently had a considerable hawking 

 establishment for flying the merlins at skylarks. This 

 may in some respect be compared in miniature to heron 

 hawking, as the larks soar very high in the air, and it 

 requires much skill and rapid flight to capture this small 

 prey.f 



From information received from travellers, it would 

 appear that the raven is a favourite quarry of the Ice- 

 land falcons. This is somewhat confirmed by an anec- 

 dote told by an old keeper (now dead) who had been 

 in Colonel Thornton's service. The account was that 

 when the Colonel lived at Thornville Eoyal, he flew an 

 Icelander at a raven which had passed over the park 

 towards Harrogate. The country was then open and 

 the raven making down wind, was captured at Almer- 

 cliffe, about nine or ten miles from Thornville Eoyal. 



* In 1858 a grey heron was shot in the Habra, a sub-division of Gran 

 in Algeria. Attached to one of its legs was a copper ring, bearing the 

 royal crown of Holland, and in English the inscription, " Eoyal Hawk- 

 ing Club, 1850, Loo, Netherlands." 



•*• A cruel operation was performed formerly by the falconers in Scot- 

 land, to make the skylark mount high in the air, which is termed sciling. 

 "Pidl out one of the train feathers, strip the plume oflp one side of it, 

 and then put it through the one under eye-lid over the beak, and 

 lastly through the other under eye-lid; thus the plume of the other side 

 of the feather standing out under the eyes of the bird hinders it from 

 looking below, and as it can see only above, it will fly iipwards as high 

 as it can reach." — James Cam-pbell. 



