VIRTUE AND VICE 269 



time and patience — is to let her cure herself. Light a pipe and 

 sit down in a comfortable place, if such there be, and leave the 

 sinner alone until the spirit does move her to stir. At some 

 time or other, varying from five minutes to five hours, she will 

 want the lure badly enough. Then let her come for it. Keep 

 her waiting on or stooping at the lure till she has had a good 

 dose of it, and if she goes off to perch again, wait again till she 

 will work for her living. Show her, in fact, that in coming to 

 the lure she is conferring no great favour on you, as she seemed 

 to imagine, but rather that the boot is on the other leg. Next 

 time it is more than probable that she will work a little rather 

 than go fasting, when she might have a good meal at once. If 

 you have time and patience to read her a few such lessons she 

 may gradually be brought to exhibit some activity. But give 

 her a dose as well. For liver has probably something to do 

 with the matter, as well as mere laziness. 



A hawk which is hood-shy is a plague to you and to herself. 

 Very few hawks exhibit this vice except through the trainer's 

 fault. But trainers are not all good hooders ; and a few bungling 

 and unsuccessful attempts at hooding will make even the best- 

 natured hawk hate the very sight of the hood. If, therefore, 

 the beginner is not clever at the art, let him practise on a 

 kestrel. Or, if he will have one of the better hawks, let him 

 get a skilful hand to break her to the hood. To hood a hawk 

 which is already broken is a comparatively easy matter ; but it 

 is the nature of a hawk, as of any other creature, to dislike 

 being blindfolded, and the wonder is that hawks can be made 

 to submit to it as readily as they do. Occasionally a hawk has 

 such a rooted objection to the proceeding that the cleverest 

 man never succeeds in quite overcoming it. Vesta, already 

 mentioned, was hood-shy, though in good hands ; but even then 

 the objection felt by the sufferer can only by a perversion of 

 terms be rightly called a vice. Hood -shyness, even in a 

 pronounced form, has often been cured, and, as has already 

 been said, a hood-shy hawk cannot be considered fully trained. 

 Whenever the hawk is difficult to hood, she should be handled 

 constantly, and the trainer should almost always have a hood 

 in his right hand. The actual condition of being hooded is not 

 disagreeable to many hawks — it is the indignity and discomfort 

 involved in the process of putting on the apparatus that give 

 rise to the trouble. The smaller the hawk, the more difficult she 

 is to hood ; and the mischief is not only that the hawk's feathers 

 are in danger whenever she is hooded against her will, but also 



