132 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



extinct in England in his day, the flight with the merlin at 

 larks excelled all others in this country. Catherine II. of 

 Russia was also an ardent admirer of this diminutive squire 

 of dames. 



The training and entering of the merlin, eyess or wild- 

 caught, differs in no important particular from that of the 

 peregrine which is to be flown at rooks. Only the reclamation 

 is much more speedily effected. Often it can be completed, 

 even in the case of an adult jack, in less than a fortnight — with 

 the exercise of diligence, of course. An eyess, well hacked, can 

 be manned in less than a week. This, however, does not mean 

 that they can be trained to larks in that time. Writers on 

 falconry sometimes inadvertently lead their readers astray by 

 declaring that the merlin is easily trained. What the writer means 

 is probably that they are easily manned and made to the lure. 

 This is so ; but the preparation for flying in the field, at least at 

 larks, is quite a different matter. Merlins, like all other hawks, 

 differ greatly in temperament. Occasionally you will find a 

 whole nest of them quite free from vice. Such hawks are all 

 easily trained for the field. But more often these little creatures 

 are imbued from the first with a disposition to carry. And to 

 fly a merlin at larks before she is cured of this weakness is 

 to involve yourself in endless trouble. Eyesses are as bad 

 as haggards — often worse. Consequently, when the hawk is 

 manned and made to the lure, more than half your work 

 is still before you. A non-carrying merlin can be trained in 

 less than a week after being taken up from hack, whereas 

 a determined carrier will hardly be safe to fly in double that 

 time. 



There is another respect in which doubts may be entertained 

 as to the truth of the opinion that merlins are easy to train. 

 If by training is meant merely the qualifying them for driving 

 moulting larks into covert, and killing them there, the saying is 

 true enough. You may go to an enclosed country full of 

 moulting larks. You may put one up and start the hawk. 

 The lark, after a short flight, will go into a hedge ; and there, if 

 the merlin does not take him herself, you can either pick him 

 up with the hand or drive him out for the hawk, which has 

 taken perch on the fence ; and he will be counted in the bag. 

 But if by training you mean making the hawk fit to take 

 ringing larks in open ground, the case is different. To do this 

 a merlin must be in the pink of condition — quick, long-winded, 

 persevering, and a good footer. How will you make her so ? 

 She will not wait on ; no exercise is to be got that way to bring 



