250 



FALCONRY 



shown below. It is usually worn round the waist on horse- 

 back, or, if used on foot, over the shoulder. 



Many falconers use the voice freely when training or exer- 

 cising their hawks. Tradition is in favour of the practice, and 

 it seems to have been in use in Shakespeare's time, or he 

 would not have made Juliet exclaim : 



Hist ! Romeo, hist ! O ! for a falconer's voice 

 To lure this tassel-gentle back again. 



Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. ii. 



Yet we have our doubts as to the efficacy of the practice. A 

 short sharp cry as game rises is certainly of use, as it may 



attract the attention of a hawk 

 that is waiting on so wide that 

 her eyes may be turned for 

 the moment in another di- 

 rection. An old hawk, too, 

 may become so used to her 

 trainer's voice that she may 

 not, however wilful she be, 

 stray beyond sound of it. 

 But, as a rule, hawks are 

 birds that work solely by 

 the eye. They will generally 

 detect game the instant it 

 rises from the covert, many 

 seconds ere the sound of the 

 falconer's voice reaches them. 

 So, too, they will see the lure 

 the moment it is shown to 

 them, and if they will not 

 come to it when well in 



their view, no strains of the human voice, however melodious, 

 will attract them. If the falconer has a fine sonorous voice 

 and he likes to exercise it either in calling or in cheering on 

 his hawks, he can do so with eyesses without doing the slightest 



FIG. 10. Falconer's bag 



