GAME-HAWKING 117 



ing birds than an eyess. The latter has been, or ought to have 

 been, reserved, from her youth up, for the one flight for which 

 she was specially destined by her owner; whereas the other, 

 from her youth up, until captured, has been accustomed to fly 

 at whatever happened to be most ready to hand. There is, too, 

 generally a special reason why the passage hawk should be 

 apt, when expected to wait on for game, to check at any rook 

 which may be in sight. As a rule she has come into the 

 trainer's hands in the late autumn, has been deliberately entered 

 by him at rooks in early spring, and has flown them with his 

 entire approbation for some weeks. No wonder, then, that if on 

 the twelfth of August a rook comes past she should think it her 

 duty to go for him. 



Let us, however, speak of the eyess first, and we can see 

 afterwards what modifications are to be made in the case of the 

 older hawk. When your pupil will come well to the lure do 

 not keep her long, if at all, at work in stooping at it. On the 

 contrary, let the interval between the time when she is thrown 

 off and the time when she is invited to come down on the lure 

 be as long as possible. Keep her on the wing as long as you 

 dare. But you must not at first go too far in this direction. 

 If you wear out her patience she may go to perch, either on the 

 ground or perhaps in a tree half a mile away. Take her down, 

 therefore, if you can, before she is too much tired. But if you 

 should make a mistake, and the inapt pupil goes to perch, do 

 not hurry after her, unless there is any special reason for doing 

 so. Stay where you are if she is well in sight ; or, if not, move 

 to a spot where she can easily see you, and do not have the air 

 of pursuing her. Make her understand that, in this case, it is 

 she who must come to you, and not you to her. When she finds 

 after a long sojourn in the tree or on the ground, that after all, 

 she has either to trouble herself to come or else go without her 

 food, she will be less likely to be troublesome next time. She 

 will think to herself, " What was the use of all that delay ? I 

 might as well have kept on the wing and had my dinner sooner." 

 Such reflections are very salutary. You do not want to be 

 beat by your pupil, but your pupil to be beat by you, and to 

 learn that your way of doing things is the best both for her and 

 for you. She will learn it, too, if you go the right way to work 

 and persevere. With an eyess you have the whip hand. She 

 cannot easily feed herself without you ; and she knows it. For 

 weeks she has been indebted to you, directly or indirectly, for 

 her daily rations. Even in her wildest days at the end of hack, 

 when she would let no one come near her, she was often watch- 



