130 OTTER HUNTING, FALCONRY, SHOOTING 



more than beautiful ; they may be made the companions 

 of your walks, following on the wing, and coming to the 

 glove when called. I have known a little male bird 

 which had received a few mouthfuls of food in the 

 morning and was then thrown out of the window, meet 

 his master or mistress a couple of hours later, his presence 

 being intimated by his settling on one of their heads ; 

 then he would of course be fed, and would probably be 

 carried on the glove till the walk was over. 



Taken from hack, or wild-caught, these birds are 

 treated in the same manner as that described in the case 

 of the peregrine ; they become tame very soon, and I 

 once had a fine wild-caught hen bird, which knew the 

 lure, and followed me in the fields, one fortnight after 

 she had been taken out of the birdcatcher's net. 



As to the quarry at which they are flown, they 

 will take blackbirds, thrushes, ring-ouzels any small bird, 

 in fact ; their only fault, notwithstanding their extreme 

 tameness, being a disposition to ' carry.' With most 

 birds, however, this can be overcome, and the falconer 

 will go up to his hawk with confidence that she wilh 

 wait for him, content that he shall have the quarry just 

 killed, and knowing that he will feed her from it. 



But the quarry for the merlin there is only one of 

 consequence is the skylark. Here and this has been 

 often said we have heron-hawking in miniature. In 

 both, the * ringing ' flight is the great matter. In 

 grouse-hawking, as we have just seen, the hawk comes 



