62 HOW I BECAME A FALCONER. 
sport; but not, perhaps, an aecepted sport. Iam quite content to 
put it so. 
But the peregrine; the goshawk! A great falconer said to me 
many years ago: “It is all very well our saying this and that ; 
merlins are enchanting, most wonderful in what they do; but the 
peregrine is the bird for us.’ And I don’t wish to make any bones 
aboutit; the peregrine has certainly been the bird for me. 
And yet it is just because one part of falconry is little more than 
a pastime perhaps, while the other part is a thorough sport, that 
we find a difficulty. Go beyond the pastime, deal effectively with 
the larger hawks, and you come to something serious. If a man 
flies sparrowhawks and merlins, he will want time, it is true—he will 
want patience, skill, and so on; but he will not want expense nor 
preserved land; neither will he create jealousies, running the risk 
of engendering quarrels. And yet, when you have flown the smaller 
birds, ten to one you are not content without flying the larger— 
that is, if you have anything like the opportunity. We all know, 
or knew once, that the stream, so small at its source, acquires 
strength in its progress, and receives many tributaries on its way. 
If a man has no land of his own fit for hawking game on, and 
does not intend to rent any, I think he should content himself with 
the small hawks. I do not in this instance practise what I preach, 
as I shall show presently; but I know how common the belief is 
that the presence of the peregrine drives game from theland. Iam 
positive that it does not; but if the man from whom you ask per- 
mission to hawk, or who gives you the privilege unsolicited, thinks 
it does, you are receiving a favour from him, the extent of which it 
is almost impossible to calculate. Shoot for him sometimes, and 
welcome—and it may even answer to him to ask you ; but do any- 
thing to drive the game from his manor, and you are certainly not 
fit to be on the land at all. I could not excuse this myself; I could 
not tolerate it in the least; it is not in human nature, nor neces- 
