INTRODUCTION. xix 



Hawks are either taken young from the nest before they 

 can fl}^, when they are termed eyesses, or are caught later, 

 during the period of their migration, by means of a decoy 

 pigeon and a bow-net, when they are called passage-hawks * 

 The mode of treatment is a little different, inasmuch as the 

 latter have already learned to catch and kill prey for them- 

 selves, and only require to be tamed ; the former have ever}'- 

 thing to learn. A passage-hawk on being caught is hooded, 

 and has jesses, or soft leather straps, fastened on her legs. 

 She is then set down on a block of turf to prevent damage to 

 feathers, and fed once a day, at first through the opening of 

 the hood, afterwards with the hood removed. The bird is 

 always fed upon the gloved hand, and gradually learns to step 

 on to it from the perch, increasing the distance daily until 

 she is obliged to fly to reach the fist. The training then 

 commences. The hawk is called off^ as it is termed, to the 

 lure, which means that after tying a long line to the ends of 

 the jesses she is held hooded on the hand of an assistant, 

 until the falconer, at the distance of five-and-twenty yards, 

 swings the lure to which the bird has been accustomed to 

 come to be fed. The hood being then removed, the hawk 

 flies to the lure, and is exercised in this way for some time 

 daily, until she is sufficiently tractable to be trusted without a 

 line, care being taken not to feed her until she has flown, 

 and always to reward her for coming to the lure with a morsel 

 of the meat with which it is garnished. She is then entered 

 at the quarry at which she is intended to be flown (partridge, 

 rook, or whatever it may be) by first giving her a live bird at 

 the end of a long line, and allowing her to go off the fist and 

 kill it ; eventually the line is dispensed with, and she is flown 

 at wild quarry. 



Such, briefly, is the mode of training a passage-hawk. An 

 eyess is somewhat differently treated. A straw-covered plat- 

 form is put up in some shed or outhouse, and on this the nest- 

 lings (which should not be taken too young, or they will turn 

 out screamers) are placed, the platform being about as high up 



* The mode of capturing passage-hawks as practised by the Dutch falconers 

 will be found described in No. 79, p. 109. 



