224 HERON-HAWKING. 



Salvin's modern treatise.* Those who have taken part in 

 the sport cannot fail to be interested in a truthful narra- 

 tive of what they must so often have witnessed ; while 

 those who have never seen a trained falcon on the wing 

 will learn a good deal from the following excellent descrip- 

 tion : — 



" ' Well, then, here goes,' says the falconer ; and having 

 let the heron get a little past, off go the hoods. For a 

 moment one hawk looks up, and is cast off ; the other a 

 moment or two afterwards. They both see him ; now for 

 a flight. The heron was about 250 yards high, and 

 perhaps a quarter of a mile wide. The hawks had gone 

 up about a quarter of the way before the heron saw them 

 in hot pursuit. ' Now he sees them ! ' is exclaimed ; and 

 the riders rattle their horses as hard as they can, over deep 

 sand-hills, down wind. The heron, in the meanwhile, 

 vomits up his fish to lighten himself, and begins ringing-up 

 down wind. It is a curious thing to see the different 

 manoeuvres of the birds. With his large wings, the heron 

 can mount very fair, and has a far better chance of beating 

 off the hawks than if he flew straight forward. This he 

 knows full well by instinct, and puts on accordingly all 

 sail for the upper regions, generally in short rings. 

 Hawks make larger rings as a general rule, if, like these, 

 they are good ones. Those have but a bad chance with a 



* "Falconry; its History, Claims, and Practice," by G. E. Freeman and F. H. 

 Salvin. London, 1859. 



