LOST HAWKS 221 



usually the simplest and handiest, when it is found impossible 

 to take the hawk up by hand in the ordinary way. For no 

 preparation or paraphernalia are required except a live lure 

 and a long coil of string. If, however, you prefer to haul about 

 with you a bow net with its pegs and rings, and do not mind 

 the trouble and delay of setting the net, with the bait in the 

 proper place, that will, of course, effect your purpose in many 

 instances very well. But it is rather an intricate business com- 

 pared with the other, and one in which an unpractised hand 

 may easily make a mistake. 



Another plan which has been recommended is to fly a 

 bagged pigeon or other quarry in a light creance, and let the 

 lost hawk take it. Then, as she is breaking in, walk slowly in 

 and endeavour to take her up with the hand. If she objects 

 and tries to carry, let her go, but keep hold of her victim, which 

 she will be obliged to drop. Then, pegging that victim down 

 firmly to the ground, take a few feathers and stick them up in 

 the earth on every side of the body, the tips bending inwards, 

 but not quite touching it. Round these feathers pass the loop of 

 a cord with a running slip-knot in it, and carry the end of the 

 cord right away to a distance, where you can hide, or where at 

 least your presence will not prevent the hawk from coming 

 back. As soon as she has come back pull the string, which will 

 tighten the noose round her legs, and, keeping it taut, run in 

 and secure your prisoner. The plan is ingenious and sounds 

 feasible. I cannot doubt that it has been found so. Only — 

 what if the hawk never comes back at all ? You may sit for 

 hours, with the string ready in your hand, waiting for her to 

 reappear, and if she does not, will you not look rather small ? 

 Often, perhaps, hawks do so reappear. But sometimes I can 

 affirm that they do not. A lost hawk in full condition and 

 feather will, if scared away from one quarry, not always sit 

 disconsolate watching for a chance of getting back to it, but go 

 off simply and kill something else. A third-rate hawk may be 

 so overjoyed at having for once captured some live creature, 

 and so diffident about getting another before nightfall, that she 

 will hang about and come back to her much-prized victim. 

 But remember that it is the best hawks which run most risk of 

 being lost, and which one is most anxious to get back. 



Some hawks seem to have a natural aptitude for feeding 

 themselves. They will do so at hack, before their sisters and 

 brothers have even chased anything except in fun ; and when 

 left out for a night they may be seen in the early morning 



