HAWKING. 159 



wards show sport by soaring and endeavouring to 

 escape. It was the case with this one, for as soon 

 as it saw its enemy approaching, it appeared to lose 

 all its powers, and merely made a trifling and awk- 

 ward defence on the ground, where the Falcon would 

 speedily have killed him, if the lure had not been 

 thrown in her way*. 



It will he observed that in the above instances, the 

 Hawks either obeyed the call, or were secured by their 

 keepers, on the capture of the game, but this does not 

 always follow, and they are occasionally lost, of which 

 there is a curious proof, in a Hawk having been 

 taken, a few years ago, in the month of August, with 

 bells on its thighs, and a silver ring to its leg, with 

 the owner's name engraved thereon; it flew onboard 

 a vessel bound from North Shields to Quebec, in 

 latitude 44, longitude 25 west, nearly midway be- 

 tween the coasts of Europe and America, and died 

 after being on board twenty days. From the in- 

 scription on its silver ring, this bird must probably 

 have escaped from England or Ireland, from the 

 nearest point of which it was, when taken, about 

 700 miles. Knowing, as we do, the speed of a bird's 

 flight, this distance appears less extraordinary, and 

 might have occupied but a short time in its accom- 

 plishment. For instance, the bird might have taken 

 its departure from the nearest land, and with ease, 

 and by no means at its extreme speed, have reached 

 the vessel in six or seven hours, and as it lived for 

 twenty days on board, we have no grounds for be- 

 lieving that it had suffered from excessive fatigue or 

 hunger during its flight. 



* Naturalist's Magazine* 



