GULLS, HERON, KITE, DUCK, ETC. 147 



without changing their stockings, it may be supposed that they 

 are often out of sorts. Sometimes, doubtless, like other birds, 

 they are infirm and old. When labouring under any such dis- 

 advantage, even if it be only rheumatism or a cold in the head, 

 a chance peewit may be cut off and reckoned in the hawk's 

 score. Otherwise these birds are too clever for even the best 

 trained hawks. I have seen even bagged peewits make such a 

 complete fool of a falcon that she was ashamed of herself. They 

 did not exactly "fly round" the hawk, as the saying is, but 

 they did almost as much. They made rings underneath her as 

 she was ringing up, keeping in exactly that position where she 

 could never get her head towards them at all. Then if the 

 hawk did manage to put in a stoop they would face about so as 

 to avoid the shot, and, with a great flop of one wing, start away 

 like phantoms in an unexpected direction. If the hawk con- 

 trived to get at them from behind, they would take a sort of 

 header downwards, and, making a kind of somersault in the 

 air, come up behind the hawk with a manifest smile on their 

 usually daft countenances. 



On the downs in Wilts and Berks you will sometimes see a 

 rook-hawk, or, for that matter, a game-hawk, when coming back 

 from an unsuccessful flight, make a dash at a lapwing as he 

 flounders about below. But the creature generally shifts from 

 the stoop with almost contemptuous ease. Only in rare cases 

 is he too slow. Mr. E. C. Pinckney once took a lapwing with 

 a very young eyess tiercel ; that is, the hawk put him in after a 

 good flight, and he was picked up. But I do not think that 

 tiercel ever took another. There is therefore a chance for any- 

 one who wants to beat the record in the matter of plover- 

 hawking. With two very first-rate passage tiercels, or perhaps, 

 better still, two shaheens, the attempt might be made again. 

 Whoever succeeded would thereby have carved for himself a 

 prominent niche in the falconer's temple of fame. 



The Norfolk plover may be taken with a falcon or tiercel, 

 generally without great difficulty. Golden plovers would, I 

 think, always escape, unless they could be put up just under a 

 hawk waiting on. Curlews and several of the common sea-fowl 

 might also be taken, if found at a sufficient distance from the 

 sea. The wild goose was formerly flown with success in Eng- 

 land by gers. Landrails, if they can be got to rise, will, of 

 course, fall an easy prey, and quail can also be taken, though 

 the sparrow-hawk or the merlin is the right hawk for them. 

 They are fast, but do not shift well. The jackdaw is faster 

 than the rook, and a better shifter. He is sometimes killed by 



