178 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



clever hawk, even if she is a bit unwell, and even if she is 

 weighted heavily, will manage to kill something, if she has a real 

 mind to it ; and even if she does not, her wanderings may lead 

 her first out of sight, and then into some neighbouring field or 

 place, where a stray gunner may make an end of her. I am 

 not able to advise beginners to turn their hawks loose for any 

 longer time than they themselves or some agent can be near at 

 hand, unless it be in the case of a kestrel or hobby, or other 

 hawk which has never killed wild birds regularly in fair flight. 



No ordinary bad weather should deter a falconer from 

 taking his long-winged hawks out to exercise. Rain, unless it 

 is very heavy, will do a hawk no harm during the short time she 

 is flying to the lure or being called off. Even if the rain is 

 heavy, an umbrella can be held over the hawk as she is carried 

 to the exercise-ground and back. Wind must be very high 

 indeed before the trainer should hesitate to fly his hawks at 

 exercise. When they are to be merely called off, they will, 

 when sharp-set, if in good condition, face half a gale of wind. 

 But the two men should, in this case, post themselves rather 

 across wind, and not one exactly down- wind of the other ; other- 

 wise the hawk of the up-wind man will have her head always 

 turned directly away from the other, and moreover, if she comes 

 fast towards the latter, may be carried so far past him that she will 

 not take the trouble to fetch up again, and struggle up-wind to 

 a lure of which she has once been disappointed. A game-hawk, 

 especially if it is a passager, should not be kept waiting on 

 very long on a boisterous day. Should she, while in the air, 

 catch sight of a wood-pigeon or house-pigeon down-wind, and 

 give chase,, she may be out of sight in a moment, and, if the 

 quarry takes the air, may go miles before you can run or ride 

 five hundred yards. The best hawks rather enjoy flying in a 

 very high wind, and seem to take an obvious pride in exerting 

 their mastery over it. Their stoops at the lure in such weather 

 are often exceptionally fine ; and the tremendous pace at which 

 the wind enables them to come down, evidently affords them 

 much inward satisfaction. 



In hot and sunny weather some caution is advisable in 

 flying hawks to the lure, as well as in the field. For when in 

 high condition, even if they are hungry, they are sometimes 

 disposed to go soaring, and, as it were, forgetting all about mun- 

 dane affairs, disappear in airy circles down-wind. Eyesses will, 

 it is true, generally come back when they are tired of soaring. 

 They are reminded, sooner or later, by an internal feeling that 



