292 THE NEW FOREST 



taken from the nest, which is almost afraid to 

 lose sight of the man who has always brought 

 food to it. It is further twice as hard to tame 

 as even an ordinary wild caught hawk of the 

 first year, which is not yet a twelvemonth old, 

 and is more easily reclaimed. 



Many a haggard is not really worth the 

 trouble it takes to reclaim and train. Moreover, 

 if you lose her, and leave her out for but twenty- 

 four hours, the old "call of the wild" comes 

 to her, and you have a wild hawk to catch 

 again, instead of merely a lost friend to find and 

 recover. 



But if you once get your haggard trained, you 

 have a hawk indeed. For you have got no 

 amateur that needs entering and training to 

 teach her to fly, but a genuine professional one 

 that has at the least maintained itself for two 

 or three years, killing some wild sea bird, or 

 rock pigeon on most days, and harrying the 

 wild fowl on their migrations, and possibly has 

 also brought up a family needing far harder 

 work from her, and plenty more killing in order to 

 supply the larder for the whole brood. 



Such a hawk as this can fly like a swift, and 

 catch prey wherever she is well placed to do so. 

 She has for her lifetime exercised " dominion over 

 the fowls of the air " at her sweet will and plea- 



