264 FALCONRY 



the birds are sprung- that is to say, she must be as high as she 

 is likely to mount, exactly over the birds, but a little up wind of 

 them. If, then, the falconer springs the birds at the right 

 moment, and turns them down wind, a good stoop will be made, 

 which will probably result in a kill. O fortunati nimium ! if 

 such be the result, for, with future care and caution, the hawk is 

 made. Let then the falconer go carefully in to her as she sits 

 with the game in her foot ; if he has trained her carefully he 

 need have no fear of her carrying, for she will but regard his 

 approach as an extra assistance by which she may the more 

 rapidly obtain the tit-bits of her meal. She should be given a 

 fair good three-quarter crop with plenty of casting, hooded up 

 and taken home, and flown again the afternoon of the next day. 

 Should she kill her bird again, treat her in the same manner, and 

 then fly her twice or thrice a day as long as she kills well, and 

 get all the spoU you can out of her. After being flown for a 

 while at game the hawk will (if it is ever to become a good one 

 at all) begin to mount higher and higher. Unless it does so, it 

 will be of no use at all later in the season, and, indeed, it is sur- 

 prising how few hawks can kill grouse regularly and well after 

 September 15, or partridges (especially in the case of tiercels) 

 after November i. The higher a hawk mounts the more ground 

 it will cover, and where the pitch is good game will be killed 

 that has sprung very wide of the hawk ; but, as a rule, the 

 hawk should be high, and directly over the game, which should 

 be sprung down wind, so as to ensure a down-wind stoop. To 

 ensure success these three points must ever be strictly observed, 

 and for grouse late in the season, or even December partridges, the 

 falconer will find that he can afford to give very few points away. 



Should the quarry be driven into a fence or other covert, a 

 good spaniel is useful either to retrieve or to drive him 01 1. 

 Old hawks are thoroughly alive to this part of the sport, and 

 will recover their pitch with extraordinary rapidity after having 

 driven a bird headlong into covert, so as to be ready should he 

 emerge from it. 



Game hawking, contrary to what might be expected, has 



