HAWKING. 
181 
the capture of the game, but this does not always follow, 
and they are occasionally lost; of which there is a curious 
proof in a Hawk having been taken, a few years ago, in the 
month of August, with bells on its thighs, and a silver ring 
to its leg with the owner’s name engraved thereon. It flew 
on board a vessel bound from North Shields to Quebec, in 
latitude 44°, longitude 25° west, nearly midway between the 
coasts of Europe and America, and died after being on board 
twenty days. Erom the inscription on its silver ring, this 
bird must probably have escaped from England or Ireland, 
from the nearest point of which it was, when taken, about 
700 miles. Knowing as we do the speed of a bird’s flight, 
this distance appears less extraordinary, and might have 
occupied but a short time in its accomplishment. For 
instance, the bird might have taken its departure from the 
nearest land, and with ease, and by no means at its extreme 
speed, have reached the vessel in six or seven hours ; and as 
it lived for twenty days on board, we have no grounds for 
believing that it had suffered from excessive fatigue or hunger 
during its flight. 
In the above cases of hawking for Herons, and some other 
birds, it is observable that the Hawk’s object is to disable 
its prey in the air, and force it to fall to the ground, by the 
infliction of a severe wound ; and it is remarkable that well- 
trained Hawks, and probably all, from natural instinct, aim 
at the back, and for this curious reason, that the Heron fre- 
quently, indeed, whenever it can, on finding the Hawk above 
it, and ready to pounce down, turns itself on its back, with 
an intention of piercing its assailant through with its long 
sharp beak ; and in ancient pictures of hawking, the Heron 
is often represented falling with its back downwards, and 
occasionally with the Hawk transfixed by its beak in the 
moment of descent. 
All Hawks, however, do not fly at their game with an 
intention of taking it in the air, while others, so far from 
avoiding the head, make' it their particular point of attack, 
as the Kestrel ( Falco tinnunculus ), which was invariably 
observed by a person who kept one for some time to crush 
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