220 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



been already effectively occupied. Thus the copse haunted by 

 a couple of young peregrines, or the down quartered by a wild 

 merlin every day, is not the best place to look for a trained 

 bird of the same species which has been lost for more than 

 twenty-four hours, although during the first period the tame and 

 the wild bird may be seen stooping at one another or racing 

 together in a most amicable style. If you have seen them 

 together one day, and been unable to get down your own hawk, 

 you will do well to seek her afterwards not on the same ground, 

 but in a different, though not very distant, district. 



As soon as you can get well within sight of your lost hawk, 

 the live lure may be relied upon to effect her capture, until she 

 has been out several days — in the case of eyesses for at least a 

 week. But I should not advise forcing it upon her notice at a 

 time when she has a full crop, if you can defer this at all safely 

 until she has had time to get a bit hungry again. For though 

 she will probably take and kill the bird offered, she may, if 

 she is not hungry, refuse to stay on it while you can secure 

 her ; whereas when she is keen after her meal you will be 

 able to wind her up as she stands over it on any reasonably 

 level piece of ground. The process of winding up consists in 

 merely dragging a fine line, the end of which is affixed to the 

 quarry or to a stone or weight, round and round the feet of 

 a hawk which is feeding on the ground. The difficulty is to 

 pass the line under the tail, which, of course, acts as a mild sort 

 of shield to keep the cord off. As the falconer walks round and 

 round his hawk with the end of the line in his hand he must 

 wait, as the line gets to the hawk's tail, for a favourable oppor- 

 tunity of pulling it under. If the hawk is fidgety and keeps 

 disengaging her feet from the loops which have been already 

 wound round her, it may be necessary to make many circles, 

 and to begin the work several times all over again. But if the 

 hawk is not frightened by any violent pulls on the line, or by un- 

 successful attempts to take her up, the loops will sooner or later 

 be so securely hitched round one or both feet that she cannot 

 possibly escape. In the case of a hawk which has been out 

 long, and is shy and suspicious, a long line must be used, and 

 much care must be taken not to alarm her by jerking or tugging 

 at it as you wind. Some hawks will, during a week's holiday, 

 have retained a great many of the habits and much of the tame- 

 ness which a course of training has deeply instilled into them, 

 while others will in the same space of" time have developed 

 into almost wild creatures. This method of recapture is 



