284 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



law. All falconers are highly indebted to Mr. E. C. Pinckney 

 for having demonstrated this fact conclusively in a local tribunal. 

 He extracted £10 in damages from a neighbour who had shot 

 at and killed his game-hawk, although the latter set up the 

 usual defence, pretending that he was unaware that the hawk 

 was a tame one. The judge held that, as he was aware that 

 his neighbour kept trained hawks, if he shot at one, he did so at 

 his own peril, just as a man would who shot at a house-pigeon 

 or escaped parrot. More lately still, Mr. A. W. Reed has been 

 awarded £5 at the Kingston County Court as damages from a 

 neighbour who had wilfully shot his trained peregrine. The 

 precedents, as far as they go, are most valuable. Unfortunately 

 they do not, of course, go very far. But a falconer will be well 

 advised, having regard to them, to send notices in registered 

 letters, when going into any district, to all such people as are 

 likely to prove mischievous. 



