HOW I BECAME A FALCONER.* 
CHAPTER I. 
FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH KESTRELS, SPARROWHAWES, MERLINS— 
EARLY NOTHS ON FLYING THE MERLIN—MY OLD ENTHUSIASM. 
I pon’r know whether I have at all succeeded, but I have certainly 
endeavoured to repeat myself as little as possible in anything I 
have written on the subject of falconry, both here and elsewhere. 
Iam conscious, however, that it is difficult to avoid even the old 
expressions—and some of the old matter is of course unavoidable— 
in writing upon a subject which the author has worn almost thread- 
bare. Nevertheless, I only hope that what Iam about to do will 
not be considered an impertinence—not the thrusting of an unsa- 
voury morsel down reluctant throats—not the appearing again on 
the stage before an audience long ago quite tired of me, and disposed 
to hiss me off. 
I had the thing born in me, I believe, for I cannot remember that 
I read any books on hawking when I was at school; and yet it was 
‘then that I was determined, if possible, to train a hawk to fly birds. 
I had, however, read the “Swiss Family Robinson,’’ and thought 
Fritz a very clever fellow to train the Malabar eagle as he did, 
though I now know that he did so in a perfectly impossible way. 
I have not the most feeble notion what is meant by a Malabar eagle ; 
* The chapters entitled ‘‘ How I became a Falconer” were published in 
Tur Fiep before the little treatise on “‘ Practical Falconry.” This has 
been mentioned before, but it may be as well to notice it again in this place. 
