258 FALCONRY 



down to blocks close to the hack-board for two or three days 

 until they get thoroughly familiar with the surroundings. 



At the end of that time the falconer should quietly, and 

 without frightening the hawk, cut its jesses off close to the 

 swivel and leave it on the block loose. At night, after the 

 hawk has fed, is the best time to do this. In the morning it 

 will, after looking about it, quietly take wing, though its first 

 flight will probably not take it out of sight of the hack-board, 

 to which it will come down and feed, as it has been accustomed, 

 at the usual time. 



As soon as the. young hawks have each spent the day on the 

 wing and returned to feed at evening on the hack-board, they 

 may be considered safe, and may be kept in this state of liberty 

 until they learn to prey for themselves, which will not be for 

 some weeks. It is a beautiful sight to see them playing 

 together, coursing each other through the air, stooping and 

 dodging, till at last, hot and weary, they ring up in wide 

 circles into the cooler currents high overhead till they are out 

 of sight and you see them no more till the feeding-time draws 

 near. 1 Possibly as the time approaches, none, or at most but 

 one or two, are to be seen about the hack-board ; but before 

 the hour strikes, a little dot will be seen in the far distance, 

 which in a few seconds resolves itself into a falcon, hastening 

 like 'a bolt from the blue,' to take her place at the dinner- 

 table ; in a minute more another speck is visible in another 

 direction, then two or three together, and in a few minutes 

 the whole vicinity of the hack-board will be alive with hawks, 

 racing and chasing each other, till at last they drop down 



1 In the summer of 1881, an old wild tiercel came daily to play with the 

 young hawks which we were flying at hack, and so lost his natural fear of 

 mankind, through associating with them, that he would at times stoop within 

 a few yards of the windows of the house, and even took to roosting on the ad- 

 joining church-steeple with the young hawks. When some of the nestlings 

 were caught up, he disappeared, but, unhappily, carried off with him his 

 favourite playmate, an exceedingly promising young falcon, which he kept so 

 well provided with food that she ceased to feed at the hack-board and so never 

 could be taken up. 



