PRACTICAL FALCONRY. 21 
is on the wing. Iam speaking now of course only of this stage. 
Reward her well when you have lifted her on the lure. You don’t 
touch her, of course; you only take the lure in your hand, just under 
where she is eating, and fasten the jesses to the hook-swivel on your 
glove, or to the leash, which you pass through their slits for the time 
being. Detach the beef, fowl’s leg, piece of pigeon, or what you have, 
from the lure by a cut of your knife on the string, and hold it firmly 
in your hand, well down in your grasp: this is simply to save you the 
nuisance of weight in carrying a heavy lure in one hand. Whenshe 
has finished (but rather let her eat on her way), hood and take her 
home ; but let her sit barefaced on her block, if you know that she 
will sit quietly. Ifyou think she won’t, keep the hood on by all 
means. Fasten her to the block before you take the hood off. 
We have now made considerable progress, and the hawk is ready 
for entering to quarry. The orthodox plan is to give her a pigeon 
at the block, which she kills and eats ; and, the day but one after 
this meal, to fly her ata young one. Now, the entering to pigeons 
has its advantages and disadvantages. Amongst the former we 
have the constant exercise and practice which the hawk gets by the 
flights, and the many valuable lessons she may receive in * waiting 
on.’ Let us look into this a little. 
Watting on expresses the action of « hawk circling above the 
faleoner, and waiting till he springs quarry. When a wide-ranging 
dog is used, a good and practised game hawk will be seen to wait 
more on him than on his master. The peregrine can’t go up too 
high. A bird that will “‘ wait on”’ in the clouds, like the little falcon 
Anrora, the property of the Count Alfonso de Aldama, and lately 
flown at grouse in Scotland, can hardly be valued by such and such 
a number of sovereigns—she is priceless. That bird, however, is 
not an eyess, she is a wild-caught hawk, and of such I must say a 
few words in one of these chapters. Most hawks do nothing like 
this ; screamers keep close to the ground as a rule, and many of 
