176 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



the pleasure of success was commensurate with 

 the risk encountered. 



It was a practice with Colonel Bonham to 

 6 play * his hawks occasionally, having previously 

 taken the precaution of ' half feeding them up,' 

 and allowing the brass swivels by which the 

 leashes are attached to the e bewits,' or rings, to 

 remain on their feet, which thus proved a suffi- 

 cient ballast to prevent them from indulging in 

 long protracted flights. Nothing, he assured me, 

 could surpass the calm delight with which on a 

 fine autumnal evening he used to lie stretched on 

 the heather near the lodge, and contemplate for 

 hours the graceful aerial evolutions of his falcons. 

 Occasionally the passage of an imprudent hooded 

 crow would excite them to a short chace, and after 

 a good buffetting they would allow him to pursue 

 his way without further interruption. Sometimes 

 two or three would meet together in mimic com- 

 bat, and with loud screams cleave the air in a 

 rapid descent, or tumble headlong towards the 

 ground, until suddenly arresting their downward 

 course they would reascend to the higher regions 

 in gradual gyrations, and continue to soar aloft, 

 or repeat their manoeuvres until it was time to 

 call them down from their 'play.' Then the 

 falconer would appear with his lure, and sweeping 

 it round his head and shouting at the same time 



