PARTRIDGE-HAWKING. 2\J 



The provincial name of " puttock," which occurs in the 

 above quotation, is sometimes applied to the kite, some- 

 times to the common buzzard. In this case, as shown by 

 the context, the kite is the bird referred to. A greater 

 enemy to the partridge than either of these birds is the 

 peregrine, whose skill in taking this game was early 

 turned to advantage by falconers. Partridge-hawking was 

 formerly a favourite pastime, and is still, to a certain ex- 

 tent, with those few who still maintain the practice of 

 falconry. For this sport either the peregrine or the goshawk 

 may be used. Aubrey has recorded a curious event which 

 happened when he was a freshman at Oxford in 1642. 

 He frequently supped with Charles I., who then resided at 

 the University; and on one of these occasions he heard 

 the King say that — " As he was hawking in Scotland, he 

 rode into the quarry, and found the covey of partridges 

 falling upon the hawk." He adds that the King said — " I 

 will swear upon the book that it is true." Mr. F. H. Salvin 

 has been very successful in taking pheasants with the male 

 goshawk, which he found required no " entering," but flew 

 and killed even old cocks, threading his way through the 

 trees in a wonderfully rapid manner.* 



Those who made their living by fowling, and could not 

 afford to hawk, took their birds by springe and net ; and 



* Some interesting remarks on pheasant and partridge-hawking will be found in 

 Freeman and Salvin's " Falconry ; its Claims, History, and Practice," pp. 233, 235. 



F F 



