277 



CHAPTER III 



THE PEREGRINE PASSAGE HAWKS ADVANTAGES OF HOW 

 CAUGHT MODE OF TRAINING HERON HAWKING ROOK 

 HAWKING GULL HAWKING PASSAGE HAWKS FOR GAME 

 LOST HAWKS 



WHAT the professional is to the amateur, or rather, perhaps, 

 what the thoroughbred horse is to all other varieties of the 

 equine race, the passage hawk is, according to species, to 

 every other hawk which is trained, inasmuch as she is swifter, 

 more active, more hardy, and more powerful than the nestling. 

 That this should be so is no matter for surprise when it is 

 recollected that the passage, or wild-caught, hawk has spent 

 days and weeks on the wing in every kind of weather, and has 

 killed dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of wild birds in fair flight, 

 while the nestling has only gained what power of wing she 

 possesses from some three or four weeks of flying at hack, and 

 since that time has been flown at from two to three birds a 

 day, and that only when the weather was fine. Moreover, 

 though we cannot definitely account for this, the temper of the 

 wild-caught hawk is, as a rule, far gentler and more amiable, 

 when once she is tamed, than is that of a hawk taken from the 

 nest ; and, while the latter are rarely free from the horrible 

 trick of screaming, that vice is almost unknown among passage 

 hawks. 



These differences in temper were well understood by Symon 

 Latham, who published in 1615 his book called ' The Faulcon's 

 Lure and Cure ' (which is to this day the best English work on 

 falconry ever written), and who says in conclusion of a chapter 



