HAWK AND HERON. 



165 



herons, ducks, and wild geese ; and its courage was not 

 inferior to its strength. Sir John Sebright describes the 

 chase of the heron as formerly practised in Norfolk. The 

 herons, he says, go out in the morning to rivers and ponds 

 at a very considerable distance in search of food, and 

 return to the heronry towards the evening. It is at this 

 time that the falconers place themselves in the open 



HAWKING. 



country, to windward of the heronry ; so that the herons, 

 being intercepted on their homeward flight, are compelled 

 to fly against the wind to gain their place of retreat. 

 Wlien a heron passes, a cast of hawks is let go. The 

 heron disgorges his food when he finds he is pursued, and 

 seeks to keep above the hawks by rising in the air ; on 

 the other hand, the hawks fly in a spiral direction with 



