272 FALCONRY 



sometimes obtained, the duck when outflown generally making 

 straight for the pond whence he was sprung. Few tiercels will 

 take mallard, but for teal they are excellent. 



Woodcocks afford the finest kind of game hawking, but can 

 rarely be found in sufficiently open ground to be flown at. 

 Should the cock avoid the first stoop, as it probably will do, 

 even when a high- mounting hawk is waiting on, he will cer- 

 tainly ring up into the air, and a beautiful flight, akin to heron 

 hawking, may be witnessed after the usual description of game 

 flight is over. Falcons are the best for this quarry, and though 

 it taxes the powers of the hawk, yet with a really good falcon 

 the woodcock is not an exceptionally difficult bird to kill. 

 Snipe are occasionally cut down by a good tiercel, and some- 

 times the hawk will ring up over them, but they are not easy 

 to kill except in August. Pheasants, if found in the open, are 

 easily caught, but not many tiercels care to tackle an old cock, 

 which buffets them sadly when on the ground, 



Blackgame when young are very readily taken, and are 

 useful for entering young hawks, but when fully fledged, say 

 after October i, the blackcock can take care of himself. A 

 high -mounting hawk, well placed, may cut him down at the 

 first stoop, but should he shift from it he will almost certainly 

 outfly the hawk. 



We have never known hares to be successfully taken with 

 the peregrine except in one season. This was in 1883, on the 

 Achinduich moors, when a particularly fine, high-mounting 

 grouse- falcon, called ' Parachute,' was waiting on at a great pitch 

 over a point, which turned out to be at a blue hare instead of a 

 grouse. To the surprise of all, the moment the hare moved the 

 falcon came down like a flash, and striking it behind the ears rolled 

 it over and over. Shooting up, she repeated the blow again and 

 again, and finally binding to the exhausted hare would no doubt 

 have very shortly killed it, even if an officious spaniel had not 

 come to her assistance. The case seemed so remarkable that 

 the experiment was tried again the next day, and the hawk 

 purposely allowed to gain her pitch over a blue hare that had 



