8 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



ment of the hawks and their owners. But all 

 things in Nature have their appointed places, and 

 in an enclosed country, with proper management, 

 good sport may be obtained with short-winged 

 hawks like the Goshawk and Sparrow Hawk. For 

 these are flown from the fist after the quarry has 

 been flushed, and are not, like the long-winged 

 hawks, cast off to range at a great height before the 

 game is found. The Goshawk by nature will take 

 Rabbits, Hares, Pheasants, Partridges, Wild Ducks 

 and Water-hens, and may be trained to do so for its 

 owner's amusement. The Sparrow Hawk, also, will 

 take young Partridges early in the autumn, but 

 shows the best sport when flying at Blackbirds 

 and Thrushes in the turnip fields to which these 

 birds are in the habit of resorting in autumn. 



Hawking, like other field sports, has its proper 

 seasons. In the early spring the falconer trains 

 the long-winged falcons to fly at Rooks, Carrion 

 Crows, and Magpies on the open downs. Towards 

 the end of summer the Merlin affords some pretty 

 flisfhts at mounting Larks. 



By the twelfth of August the falcons are once 

 more ready for the moors, and no more beautiful 

 sight can be witnessed than that of a higfh-couraaed 

 Falcon "stooping" downward from an immense 

 height at a fast-flying Grouse and hurling it head- 

 long into the heather. The same bird also in 

 September will make equally short work of the 

 Partridges in a way that is perfectly astonishing 

 to those who are not familiar with the sio-ht 

 Besides game in autumn, young Wild Ducks may be 



