RABBIT HA WKING. 2 2 5 



times, she is next to be entered to the live quarry. For this 

 purpose a young rabbit or two may be easily procured by ferreting, 

 and being placed under an inverted flower-pot which can be 

 pulled over from a distance, with a piece of string and cross- 

 stick through the hole in the bottom, "the hawk is slipped at 

 the right moment, and rarely fails to take the rabbit at the first 

 attempt. 



Another trial or two of this kind, and she is ready to fly at a 

 wild one. The critical part of the training is now at hand, and 

 great care must be taken to avoid disappointing the hawk ; that is 

 to say, the rabbit should be well in the open, and not within easy 

 reach of a burrow into which it may pop just as the hawk is about 

 to seize it. Encouraged by the success of these first attempts, 

 she will go on improving every day, and the more she is carried 

 and flown the better she will become. 



To show what success may be attained even in the first season 

 with a young Goshawk, we may refer to the bag made by a 

 falconer still living, who in his first season, with a young female 

 Goshawk (better than a male bird, because larger and stronger) 

 which he trained himself, took 322 rabbits, three hares and two 

 magpies, and the following season 280 rabbits, two leverets, 

 eleven partridges, four magpies and two squirrels ! 



After this no tyro need despair, and though, for want of 

 experience, he may not attain to such success as this, he will at 

 all events discover in the sport of rabbit-hawking a most 

 fascinating and enjoyable recreation. 



The accompanying illustration shows the way in which a 

 Goshawk leaves the fist when the quarry is found and started. It 

 is not to be supposed that there is any unnecessary cruelty in the 



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