CHAPTER VIII 

 Game-Hawking 



PARTRIDGES, pheasants, and other game birds may be 

 killed with several kinds of hawks. In ancient times it 

 seems that the former were taken in England with the jerkin, 

 or male ger, and occasionally with the gerfalcon, — though this 

 was mostly reserved for much bigger quarry, — with the pere- 

 grine falcon and tiercel, the lanner and lanneret, the barbary 

 falcon and tiercel, the male goshawk, the female sparrow-hawk, 

 and sometimes even the tiny merlin and almost equally diminu- 

 tive hobby. In our times most of these varieties have been 

 almost disused for the flight at game birds, for various reasons, 

 the chief of which is that peregrines are found to be more useful 

 at it than the other sorts. It is true that goshawks have been 

 flown quite lately both at partridges and pheasants, and with 

 some success ; and it will be seen in treating of the sparrow- 

 hawk that she has also done some execution amongst the 

 denizens of the swedes and stubbles. Even merlins have been 

 found occasionally to take a young partridge in September. 

 But goshawks and sparrOw-hawks are seldom speedy enough to 

 catch many full-grown partridges, unless they can be approached 

 nearer than is usually the case nowadays. Probably not more 

 than one merlin in fifty could be induced to fly partridges with 

 any zest ; and not one in a hundred could hold a full-grown one 

 on the ground without great difficulty and risk to the tail 

 feathers. And, as merlins will not wait on, the flight with them 

 at partridges, if it were to be accomplished, would lack the chief 

 attraction of game-hawking, and not be much worth seeing. 

 The lanner and the barbary, as well as the ger-tiercel, would still 

 certainly show good sport with game ; so would the two kinds 

 of shaheen, and very possibly the saker. But the supply of 

 these hawks is extremely limited ; and the climate of England 

 does not suit them so well as the peregrine. Moreover, the 



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