GAME HAWKING 



265 



not the effect of banishing the game flown at from its haunts 

 A single afternoon at the sport will prove to any man of ex- 

 perience that it is not likely to have this effect. Immediately 

 a covey is flushed, the hawk being overhead, its members 

 hurry with the utmost speed they can command to the nearest 

 covert. One bird only is killed, and the rest find a refuge 

 within a few hundred yards of the place where they were 



Falconer 'making-in' to a hawk 



found. Directly they discover that they are not pursued they 

 will be out on the feed again, for there is nothing unnatural or 

 unusual to them in being frightened by a hawk. Probably on 

 any ground open enough for hawking, they see a wild one 

 every other day, and merely consider the trained bird to be 

 one of their natural enemies, which they readily avoid by their 

 natural powers and instinct. 



