ABOUT THE KESTREL 97 



his perch on the handiest branch he could find, and the lure, to our delight, 

 dropping safely to earth ; to be reclaimed and used a few minutes later for the 

 purpose of bringing back the demoralized ' Armistice.' 



But the most interesting incident that befell our little friend happened 

 whilst we were flying him to the lure in open country ; he was sitting at the 

 time on a gate-post and we were about to call him off, when a wild Kestrel 

 made straight for him, and, but for our violent shouts and gesticulations, would 

 assuredly have struck him. 



Thereupon we decided to try an experiment to discover whether a wild 

 hawk could be caught with a tame one, so, caUing our hawk back to us, we 

 attached the swivel and leash to his jesses, and fastened him to a small stump 

 in the middle of the field. 



Hardly had we gone 50 yards away when t^e wild hawk again made for 

 him, this time bowhng him over, and strugghng with him on the ground, 

 and only leaving go and flying off as we ran up to help our friend ; for we had 

 not expected quite such definite action on the part of the wild hawk. 



Again and again we tried walking away from our bird, to find out whether 

 the wild one would again attack, and each time that we did so, back he came ta 

 carry on the assault. 



And despite our efforts to keep him from closing, he once again managed 

 to dash in and knock the unfortunate ' Armistice ' off his perch, the pair of them 

 this time entering into the spirit of the thing, and indulging in a rough and 

 tumble on the ground. 



Now there is not the slightest doubt that if we had had a bow-net of some 

 kind handy, we could quite easily have pulled it over both of them, and so 

 secured the stranger as well as the bewildered 'Armistice.' 



However, the experiment was never carried out, for we had neither a bow- 

 net, nor the desire for another hawk, and in fact it was shortly afterwards that 

 ' Armistice ' was given his freedom. Let us hope that he helped to rear a family 

 during the past season. 



N 



