GROUSE HAWKING 267 



that she is steady, the birds may be flushed. The hawk ought 

 now to be hanging steadily, with her head to the wind, at least 

 three gunshots high. She looks no bigger than a butterfly, and 

 here and there bits of scud may be seen drifting between the 

 earth and her ; yet she is under command, and, should the 

 point prove a false one, will follow her master at that lofty 

 pitch while, say, fifty acres of heather are beaten below her. But 

 at the right moment the falconer, who has moved quietly round 

 so as to head his dog while the hawk gains her pitch, dashes 

 down upon the point, the birds are sprung, and the hawk, turning 

 on her side, flies downward for a few strokes as hard as she can, 

 and then with wings closed she falls like a stone slung from a 

 mighty catapult, almost like a flash of light, right on to the 

 very top of the bird she has from the first moment selected. 

 Should she hit him fair and square, there will be a little cloud of 

 feathers in the air, and the grouse will bound on to the heather 

 as dead as though he had received the contents of a choke- 

 bore at forty yards ; but if the quarry pursued be an old cock 

 grouse, perchance at the critical moment he will give three or 

 four abrupt side shifts like those of a newly-sprung snipe, and 

 the baffled hawk will shoot up after her stoop to a height half 

 as high as that which she came from, ready to drive at the 

 grouse again as he scuds off to the shelter of the nearest burn. 

 It then becomes a trial of speed between the two, the result of 

 which depends on the distance of the flight, the lay of the 

 ground, and similar circumstances ; but the falconer will only 

 occasionally be able to see the actual finish, and following 

 on the line of flight will either find his falcon beneath the 

 lee of some great boulder surrounded by a mass of feathers, 

 about to begin her feast on the body of her victim, or else 

 hears the tinkle of her bell as the defeated hawk, having re- 

 covered her wind, takes flight again to search for her master. 



It is a great advantage when the dog can be trained to dash 

 in towards his master and flush the birds at a given signal, 

 instead of the man having to run down and spring them 

 himself. The dog's nose tells him exactly where the birds are. 



