THE REVIVAL OF FALCONRY. 81 
Ten years ago it was almost impossible to get a Goshawk in 
England at any price. Two or three were caught annually by the 
Dutch falconers; but with these exceptions there was nothing to 
be got, unless an occasional wretched-looking scarecrow, imported 
in a cage by the Leadenhall dealers, with every feather broken. 
And yet the hawk is not uncommon on the Continent; but they 
have to be specially sent for, or they arrive spoilt. and good for 
nothing. 
Believing the Goshawk to be the hawk of the future for England, 
I have devoted no little trouble to solving the problem of a supply ; 
and I have solved it. In some of the large forests in France the 
nests are so abundant that I have seen seven (yielding twenty-two 
nestlings in one season) in a square mile. Moreover, I have long 
had an idea that even better supplies are to be obtained from the 
North. Accordingly, in 1876, Lord Lilford and myself sent to 
Norway in the autumn to explore the haunts of the raptorial birds, 
in which exploration we met with complete success. In about ten 
days the three men (one of my falconers and two Norwegians) 
caught twenty-seven “ passage” (¢.e., wild-caught) hawks—fourteen 
Goshawks, eleven Norwegian Gerfalcons, and two Rough-legged 
Buzzards. These Goshawks were nearly as large again as the 
French birds, besides being certainly faster, though preying almost 
exclusively on Ptarmigan. Ornithologists may be interested to 
learn that the only other hawks met with in Norway by my people 
were the Merlin and the Hobby (in October!). Another unfailing 
source of supply is Latakia, in Syria. 
These wild-caught Goshawks are infinitely better and easier to 
manage than nestlings, which require constant attention, and go 
out of training so quickly as to try the temper of a beginner most 
terribly. It is nestlings that have earned for the Goshawk a 
character for sulkiness and laziness which has deterred many 
falconers from making use of it. A “passage” Goshawk, as a 
tule, is devoid of these bad qualities. 
Merlins are getting gradually scarcer. ‘They are absolutely 
harmless; yet the gamekeepers wage deadly war against them, 
and, nesting as they do on the ground, they are only too easily 
killed. Thirteen nests were thus cruelly and wantonly de- 
stroyed last summer in a small island off the west coast of Scotland. 
I do what little I can by purchasing all the young ones the keepers 
send me, whether I want them or not, as this encourages them to 
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