PARTRIDGE HA WRING. 245 



headlong rush, stoops at the one she has singled out. So true a 

 judge is she of pace and distance, that, unless the partridge drops 

 suddenly into covert, she rarely fails to strike it fatally. No 

 prettier picture could present itself to the eye of an artist than 

 the grouping of dogs, hawk, and falconer at the moment which 

 precedes the fatal stoop. The dogs setters or pointers, as the 

 case may be motionless on point, half-concealed perhaps in a 

 field of turnips, or patch of clover, or standing out in bold relief 

 upon the edge of a stubble ; the hawk, well understanding the 

 proceedings, " waiting on " at a considerable height above them ; 

 the falconers, advancing slowly in line, or pausing in their 

 enthusiasm, to admire the scene before them. A step forward, a 

 rush of wings, a shout of " Hoo, ha, ha," a grey meteor falls across 

 the sky, and amid a small cloud of feathers a partridge drops with a 

 dull thud amongst the turnip leaves, or disappears like a stone in 

 water, in the waving clover. 



A finale such as this, however, is not to be effected as a matter 

 of course by any tyro who can procure a hawk. Its accomplish- 

 ment implies a good deal of previous trouble in the taming, 

 training, feeding, bathing, and general management of the noble 

 falcon before it can be trusted to fly at liberty, and exhibit 

 the exercise of its natural instinct for man's pleasure and benefit. 



It would be impossible within our present limits to give any- 

 thing like a detailed account of the mode of training game- 

 hawks, a subject upon which many books have been written ; 

 but, with a view to encourage some attempts on the part of 

 those who have the leisure and inclination for such sport, it 

 will not be out of place to offer a few remarks upon the more 

 important points to be attended to. It may be stated, then, as a 



