228 BEACH GRASS 



tested by the numerous clubs devoted to its pur- 

 suit. The two hawks generally used in this sport 

 in England are the peregrine falcon and the spar- 

 row hawk. The former is the same as our duck 

 hawk with only a slight subspecihc difference, 

 while the latter is an accipiter like our sharp- 

 shinned and our Cooper's hawk and is midway in 

 size between them. By our unscientific early col- 

 onists, our sparrow hawk was given the name it 

 bears, although it is a falcon and not an accipiter 

 like the British bird. It should have been called 

 the kestrel. 



Now it is one form of sport to train the captive 

 hawk for killing, to blind it with a hood and to 

 starve it so that it is keen to strike its chosen vic- 

 tim, and a very different sport to watch the wild 

 bird enjoying its freedom, its glorious powers of 

 flight and of soaring and gliding, with its mar- 

 velous mastery of air currents, and, at rare and 

 most exciting intervals, to see it strike its prey. 

 Another attribute of this form of hawking that I 

 am here extolling is the intellectual pleasure to 

 be obtained from the recognition of the hawk — 

 the diagnosis of the species. 



