HAWKING. 131 



the capture of the game, but this does not always follow, 

 and they are occasionally lost; of which there is a curious 

 proof in a Hawk having been taken, a few years ago, in the 

 month of August, with bells on its thighs, and a silver ring 

 to its leg with the owner's name engraved thereon. It flew 

 on board a vessel bound from North Shields to Quebec, in 

 latitude 44, longitude 25 west, nearly midway between the 

 coasts of Europe and America, and died after being on board 

 twenty days. From the inscription on its silver ring, this 

 bird must probably have escaped from England or Ireland, 

 from the nearest point of which it was, when taken, about 

 700 miles. Knowing as we do the speed of a bird's flight, 

 this distance appears less extraordinary, and might have 

 occupied but a short time in its accomplishment. For 

 instance, the bird might have taken its departure from the 

 nearest land, and with ease, and by no means at its extreme 

 speed, have reached the vessel in six or seven hours ; and as 

 it lived for twenty days on board, we have no grounds for 

 believing that it had suffered from excessive fatigue or hunger 

 during its flight. 



In the above cases of hawking for Herons, and some other 

 birds, it is observable that the Hawk's object is to disable 

 its prey in the air, and force it to fall to the ground, by the 

 infliction of a severe wound ; and it is remarkable that well- 

 trained Hawks, and probably all, from natural instinct, aim 

 at the back, and for this curious reason, that the Heron fre- 

 quently, indeed, whenever it can, on finding the Hawk above 

 it, and ready to pounce down, turns itself on its back, with 

 an intention of piercing its assailant through with its long 

 sharp beak ; and in ancient pictures of hawking, the Heron 

 is often represented falling with its back downwards, and 

 occasionally with the Hawk transfixed by its beak in the 

 moment of descent. 



All Hawks, however, do not fly at their game with an 

 intention of taking it in the air, while others, so far from 

 avoiding the head, make it their particular point of attack, 

 as the Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), which was invariably 

 observed by a person who kept one for some time to crush 



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