136 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



or four heads already in the afternoon, will be generally too 

 much gorged if allowed to take the whole of his last lark. And 

 some female merlins may, under like circumstances, be con- 

 sidered to have had enough before they have quite finished their 

 lark. I have generally found that about a three-quarter crop in 

 the evening is as much as it is wise to give. 



Larks should always be flown up-wind ; that is to say, when 

 they get up to windward, and not to leeward of the hawk. A 

 down-wind slip is very seldom satisfactory. If the lark is 

 good you see nothing of the flight, and are dependent on your 

 markers for finding the hawk, if she kills. The time lost is also 

 often regrettable. It is not likely that with the first lark flown 

 by any trained merlin you will have a kill. Only twice, I think, 

 do I remember such a thing to have occurred. But the escape 

 of several larks at first will do you no manner of harm. Even 

 if your merlin refuses, you need not be at all discouraged. One 

 of the most deadly merlins I ever had, when first taken out, 

 refused seven larks in succession, and did not kill till her twelfth 

 flight. But after that first kill she never refused again. If a 

 trained hawk persists in refusing, or leaving the good larks, in 

 hopes of getting a bad one, the case is serious. Possibly the 

 reason may be that she is out of condition. But if it is her 

 pluck that is wanting, you cannot expect to make much of her. 

 In any case physic her, and give her two days' rest. And the 

 next time, if you can, fly her in company with a better merlin. 

 If you should lose such a hawk for three or four days, and then 

 take her up again, you may take her up cured. But you may 

 take her up confirmed in her bad habit. When I took up Ruy 

 Lopez, after three days out in a gale, he would not fly any but 

 bad larks. 



If, in the early days, your merlin puts in a lark, mark the place 

 very exactly with your eye. You must consider whether you will 

 drive him out for her or not. If the place is a thick hedge or 

 big bush, I should be inclined not to attempt it. But if it is a 

 place where you have a good chance of a second flight, as under 

 the side of an isolated rick, or under a hurdle where there are 

 no sheep, I should gratify the hawk by assisting her in the 

 moment of need, when you can be so useful to her. If you can 

 see the lark crouching and hiding himself, do not pick him up 

 with the hand, but drive him out with your foot or the end of 

 your rod. And do so when the hawk, from the top of the 

 hurdle, or rick, or wherever she has taken perch, is looking the 

 right way. A kill on such occasions will encourage her to wait 

 on another occasion till you can help her in the same way. The 



