ROOK-HAWKING 107 



rook shapes his course to the north-west, the falcon may very 

 probably steer due west. By doing so she makes sure that she 

 will soon be almost between the quarry and that desirable place 

 of refuge. To make it he must come right past her and under 

 her. Or else he must keep away and make for another covert, 

 and in that case he will have a long way to go ; and there will 

 be time to catch him up, and get between him and that other 

 haven. To passage hawks, especially haggards, this finessing is 

 the A B C of scientific flying. Moreover, an experienced hawk 

 does not always choose to stoop exactly up-wind, but prefers, 

 for some reason of her own, to come at her victim sideways. 

 There are mysterious laws and principles of aerial steering, 

 which no man understands, but which sometimes make a stoop 

 more telling when made in a direction unexpected by the riders 

 down below. Eyesses are generally some time before they 

 learn the art of utilising the wind to increase the force of their 

 stoop, and of using their heads to help their wings. Some, it is 

 true, seem to be born good tacticians, or at least to have instinc- 

 tively learnt to be so while flying at hack. But these are quite 

 the exceptions. Not only do eyesses as a rule begin with an 

 inferior style, but very few of them ever attain to the per- 

 fection of form which long practice in all weathers at all sorts 

 of different quarry has taught the old wild hawk. 



As the two birds mount, the hawk naturally gains on the 

 rook. She is the quicker flier ; sometimes, perhaps, by a 

 hundred per cent, but generally much less than this. Going 

 down- wind there is not so much difference between them, when 

 both are at the same height. But the start at a rook should 

 always be up-wind. To throw off at a down-wind rook is bad 

 falconry. When a rook means to "keep the air," or beat the 

 hawk in fair flying, he will, after a while, begin to ring, that is, 

 to ascend spirally in circles. Why he should do this, instead of 

 continuing in a straight line, no one, I think, has properly 

 explained. But the road upwards for most birds when they 

 are exerting themselves — be they kites, herons, rooks, or larks 

 — is in spiral circles more or less regular, a very obliging dis- 

 pensation of nature for those who want to look on at a high 

 flight! For while the ringing lasts the horsemen down below 

 need not hurry themselves. Only, if there is anything of a wind 

 they should always keep moving, so as to be well to leeward of 

 the flight, shifting their ground to right or left according as the 

 circles seem to tend in one or the other direction. The higher 

 the quarry goes the faster and farther will be the headlong dash 

 down-wind if he is beaten in the air. After a while, if the hawk 



