266 EEMINISCENCES OF A SPOETSMAN. 



or suffering them to remain until a little further ad- 

 vanced, must depend on circumstances. When it can he 

 done, they should be left as long as possible with the 

 parent birds, because they will thrive with them much 

 faster than under the best care of the falconer. But 

 first there is the chance of their being taken by some 

 other person ; and next, when more advanced in growth, 

 there is a greater chance that their quill-feathers may 

 be broken in removing them, from the greater resistance 

 they then make, particularly if they have far to be car- 

 ried. When the young are not immediately abstracted 

 from the nest, but are either met with as branchers, or 

 are purposely suffered to remain imtil they can clamber 

 among the boughs, the usual method of taking them is 

 by means of springs of green silk, set on the small 

 branches among the foliage. The young eyess is ren- 

 dered much more obedient and attached by its early 

 domestication than either the tabler or trapped hawk 

 can be, with equal trouble ; however, the artificial rear- 

 ing of the eyess is in some degree against its perfect 

 development, consequently the effective qualities are 

 more powerful, and they are more valued by most fal- 

 coners than the former. Haggards, or native hawks, are 

 entrapped in various ways, but the most important 

 varieties are generally taken during their migrations, 

 and are thence called passage hawks. Among the 

 methods of taking native hawks, is that which is effected 

 by the aid of the ash-coloured snipe, popularly the 

 butcher bird. The method is thus described by Mr. J. 

 D. Hoy : " The village of Falconsward in North Brabant 

 has been long famed for its falconers ; it formerly sent 

 out men well practised in the art to every part of Europe, 

 and the few efficient falconers still remaining (as this 



