HAWKS IN THE FIELD 197 



to take. All trained hawks have a certain inclination to return 

 after an unsuccessful chase towards the place from which they 

 started in pursuit ; and the man to whom the easy duty of 

 standing still is allotted generally has as good a chance of 

 taking up such a hawk as any one of those who have walked 

 or ridden forward. 



When the quarry puts in, and the place is known or shrewdly 

 guessed at, generally all the field may participate more or less 

 directly in the work of getting him out. In magpie- and black- 

 bird-hawking, this routing out of the quarry is one of the most 

 animated parts of the day's proceedings. But everything must 

 be done under the control and direction of the head falconer. 

 An amateur may do more harm than good, nay, may spoil the 

 whole job and disgust the hawk, by blundering on and driving 

 out the half-vanquished fugitive in a wrong direction, or at an 

 ill-chosen moment. The falconer himself learns by long ex- 

 perience many of the little ways of birds that have put in — on 

 which side of a fence they will most likely be found ; whether 

 inside a hedge or in the long grass or weeds outside it ; which 

 way his head is likely to be turned ; and whether he may be 

 expected to jump up readily at a man's first appearance, or to 

 sit still and allow himself to be taken up in the hand or kicked 

 up with the foot. After a hard flight, in which he was getting 

 much the worst of it, the latter is a likely event ; whereas if the 

 hawk was making a poor show, and did not press him hard, he 

 will be more ready to start again with fresh hopes of escape. 



Some judgment is sometimes required to decide whether in 

 any particular case it is advisable to drive out quarry which has 

 put in, or to pick him up with the hand, if he will allow this, 

 or to leave him alone altogether. This last alternative is not 

 so unlikely to be preferable as a beginner might imagine. 

 Suppose, for instance, that a very good rook, after a hard flight 

 with a young falcon, has managed to get to a small tree which 

 stands by itself, at a distance of a quarter of a mile or less 

 from a wood or big plantation. The hawk waits on, but rather 

 wide. By sending a boy up into the tree, you think you may 

 most likely get the rook out. Will you do so, or leave him 

 alone, and take down the falcon to the lure? If you rout the 

 rook out, it is about ten to one that he will get safe to the big 

 covert. The hawk, if at all wide when he makes his attempt, 

 will hardly have time in so short a distance to make even one 

 stoop, and far less a fatal one. You will have disappointed her, 

 and perhaps disgusted her greatly with the job of flying at 



