282 FALCONRY 



with a hanging curtain over the door, made of a heather sod, 

 so that when the long line, which is attached to the pigeon by 

 soft buckskin jesses, is pulled by the falconer the curtain 

 gives way and allows the bird to be drawn out. This line 

 passes through an eye in the head of an iron pin, which is 

 driven into the ground exactly in the centre of the bow-net, 

 so that the falconer knows, whether he can see it or not, that 

 when the pigeon's line is pulled taut and checks, the bird 

 itself is on the ground exactly in the middle of the net. 



A fourth pigeon inhabits a similar little house immediately 

 in front of the hut, and about fifty yards from it. The line from 

 this pigeon passes over the top of a light pole about twenty feet 

 high, so that when this line is pulled the pigeon is raised to 

 that height and flies well out so as to be easily seen. This 

 pigeon is intended to serve as a lure and attract a hawk from a 

 distance. 



Sometimes it happens that the falconer will catch, early in 

 the season, an old or a bad plumaged falcon that he does not 

 think highly of for hawking purposes. Such a falcon he will- 

 set out, hooded, with a line attached to her, passing over a 

 pole just as in the case of the lure pigeon. A few feet in 

 front of the hawk is fastened to the line a bunch of feathers, 

 so that when the line is pulled tight the hawk is lifted to the 

 top of the pole and flies round with the bunch of feathers in 

 front of her, looking from a distance exactly like a hawk in full 

 pursuit of, and on the point of catching, some quarry. This 

 forms a most attractive lure to a wild hawk, which is almost 

 certain to pause in her flight and lower her pitch to join in the 

 fray. 



Last of all comes the most important adjunct to the apparatus, 

 in the shape of a butcher bird, or grey shrike, which is used as a 

 watch-dog or sentinel to give notice of the approach of a hawk. 

 These curious little birds are always on the alert and on the 

 look-out for birds of prey ; their power of vision is most mar- 

 vellous, far beyond the reach of any human eye. They can detect 

 a falcon, which minutes afterwards will come into sight as a 



