100 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



different from any place in which they are likely to be flown at 

 wild quarry. In lark-hawking it is certainly very essential 

 that the hawk should get sighted at once. But though I have 

 habitually made my merlins stoop at the lure in the early 

 morning, I have not found them in consequence slow in starting 

 at quarry in the afternoon. It cannot be denied that, as far as 

 the hawk's condition is concerned, stooping at the lure is a 

 grand resource. If you were always quite sure of giving your 

 hawk a hard flight at wild quarry every day, that would doubt- 

 less be the best thing for her. But who can be sure of this ? 

 Bad weather, scarcity of quarry, and several other causes make 

 it only too certain that there will be many interruptions. But 

 even when you cannot give your hawk a real flight, you can 

 generally stoop her to the lure, and ensure that she has at any- 

 rate had a "breather" during the day. It is very rarely so 

 windy during a whole day that a trained hawk cannot be put 

 on the wing. A peregrine in good condition ought not to be 

 excused by anything short of a whole gale from daily exercise, 

 even if it amounts to no more than calling off or stooping three 

 or four times at the lure. 



It is a good thing, even after a hawk is fully made and is 

 flying wild quarry daily, to call her off occasionally to the lure, 

 though you have no need to do so. Sometimes a hawk will 

 have a long run of kills without a miss. I have known such a 

 run to last with a merlin to over thirty. During all the time 

 while such a score is being made, there will have been no 

 occasion to use the lure, except perhaps when a quarry has put 

 in and has had to be routed out. She runs a risk, therefore, of 

 forgetting all about that humble apparatus, to which a few days 

 ago she trusted so confidently for her food. Let her memory, 

 therefore, be refreshed occasionally, by interpolating a fly to the 

 dead lure amongst the long series of uniformly successful flights. 

 Otherwise, at the first unsuccessful one, you may find that the 

 once loved object has lost all its attractions. 



