76 HOW I BECAME A FALCONER. 
other notched. Two small bunches of mountain-ash berries are 
fastened to the stick, some little distance apart, and so a8 to hang 
under the nooses. A rather naked tree is now selected in a spot 
frequented by the birds: a forked branch of the tree is found, 
cleared of twigs, and forced to bend apart a little, in order that it 
may receive, when released, the inserted snare witha tight embrace. 
On one of these snares my merlin was caught: nothing could have 
been a purer accident. There was no bait which could attract him, 
unless he mistook the berries for raw meat, which is very unlikely. 
Of course, I expected to hear that some small bird was hanging in 
one of the nooses, and that the hawk came to him; but no such 
thing,”—and so on. The fact is, the hawk happened to settle in the 
tree, and chose what he thought was a horizontal, and therefore a 
comfortable, bough : that bough was the snare, and the capture was 
certainly curious, as the chances against such a thing occurring 
must have been very considerable indeed. Of course he was caught 
by the legs. This bird was on the wing again, and flying larks for 
me, only a fortnight after he was taken. 
It is well known how birds pursued by a hawk will dash into a 
room through an open window, or even through the glass. I have 
had one or two windows broken by pigeons in making their escape, 
and a ring-ouzel was once taken by a merlin of mine as it flew against 
the pane without breaking it. That merlin was at liberty about the 
house for weeks together, and would come to hand whenever I 
opened the window and called her with some food. I used to take 
her into the room, feed her, and then let her go again. 
Two rather singular terminations of a flight occurred to me in 
pigeon-flying, and: one with grouse. _Ihad flown the Princess at a 
pigeon—out of the game season—and felt sure that she had killed it 
somewhere near the house. The flight was only about half a mile. 
I looked in vain for some time till the bell guided me to the hawk 
shed, under which the pigeon had dashed for safety, and there was 
