214 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



reduced to very moderate dimensions. The worst cases, as well 

 as the commonest, are those in which the man is blamable for 

 some imprudence, and not the hawk for any vice or fault. A 

 much greater number of hawks annually get loose with the 

 leash still attached to their jesses than anyone would be likely 

 to suppose. Whenever such a mishap occurs a search should 

 instantly be made for the fugitive, for every minute which 

 elapses between the time of her loss and her recovery makes it 

 more probable that she will not again be seen alive. The long 

 tail of the leash becomes a sort of death-trap affixed to the 

 hawk herself. As often as she takes perch in a tree, or flies 

 over a telegraph-wire, or near to anything around which the 

 hanging strap can coil itself, there is the chance of its getting 

 entangled, in which case the hawk, hanging head downwards 

 will, after many struggles, perish ignominiously, perhaps before 

 the eyes of her helpless owner. 



Even if the leash is not attached when the hawk gets away, 

 or luckily drops out of the swivel, there is no little danger that 

 the jesses, joined together at their ends by the swivel, will get 

 hitched up, and a similar disaster result. All accidents which 

 occur in this way are due to sheer carelessness. No hawk 

 should ever be put upon the wing at all unless her swivel has 

 first been detached. Even the jesses, if they have big slits in 

 their ends, should be straightened out when they have been 

 freed from the swivel, so that there is no chance of their getting 

 hooked up on a nail or strong thorn. 



On the first intelligence that a trained hawk has got loose, 

 the falconer should start in pursuit, provided with a dead lure 

 in any case, and, if the hawk was not sharp-set at the time, with 

 a live lure also. The more searchers that can be sent out, the 

 better ; and these should make inquiries of every person they 

 meet. Any of them who are not competent to take up a hawk 

 themselves may carry a whistle, or pistol, or any signal agreed 

 upon, by which they may call up the falconer if they get tidings 

 or a view of the truant. In the latter case they must take care 

 not to alarm the hawk or give her any inducement to move 

 about, for each time she moves she runs a fresh risk of getting 

 entangled and brought to grief. The search for a hawk which 

 has a leash or swivel attached is not altogether the same as 

 the search for one that has only her bells and jesses. For the 

 fear is now not that the runaway, having tasted the sweets of 

 liberty, will little by little acquire or resume the habits of a wild 

 hawk, but that, being still as ready as ever to come to the lure 



