262 • FALCONRY 



jump readily to the fist for food, and to stand well to the hood, " ' 

 the next step is to introduce the lure — an instrument which has 

 been described at page 249, but which is really any convenient 

 piece of food which may be offered to a hawk, and which she- 

 cannot readily carry away. A dead pigeon or a fowl will 

 do very well. Let your hawk take a bite or two from it and 

 then fling it to the ground ; she will follow it with a little en- 

 couragement, and, after you have helped her to 'feed upon it, 

 she will again fly a few yards to it when thrown from her. 

 During this part of her education she must be confined by a 

 long string. Let her finish her meal upon the lure with your 

 assistance ; and the next day if she will fly keenly at it directly 

 it is .thrown at a little distance from her, and not offer to leave 

 it at your approach, she is fit to fly loose with due care. She 

 should be called from the block a few times at increasing 

 distances, but before this lesson has been often repeated, the 

 falconer will find-that he cannot walk far away from his hawk» 

 with the lure in his hand without hei" following him. 



She should be now placed on an assistant's hand and 

 'hooded off' to the falconer, who will swing the lure at a 

 distance of about 200 yards. -The hawk will be well on the wing 

 when she reaches him, and when she stoops at the lure he will 

 twitch it from. her, and keep it from her sight for a while. She 

 is sure to mount and circle round his head for a few moments, 

 when the lure will be thrown out to her, and she should be 

 fed on it. In a few lessons she will follow her master, circling 

 round his head at a greater or less height, according to her 

 natural inclination, for five or six minutes at a time, and then 

 the rest- of her education is a mere question of practice. ^/« 



This hawk ha.s never killed for itself, so it will be necessary 

 to arouse the instinct within it by offering her a pigeon at the., 

 block. She will almost surely seize and kill it, and the next 

 time she is flying round the falconer may be offered an easy 

 pigeon, which also she will take and instantly kill. If the 

 falconer has . thoroughly won the confidence of his hawk he 

 will have no fear of her carrying, but if it be otherwise the 



