HAWKING. 
155 
wards show sport by soaring and endeavouring to 
escape. It was the case with this one, for as soon 
as it saw its enemy approaching, it appeared to lose 
all its powers, and merely made a trifling and awk- 
ward defence on the ground, where the Falcon would 
speedily have killed him, if the lure had not been 
thrown in her way*. 
It will he observed that in the above instances, the 
Hawks either obeyed the call, or were secured by their 
keepers, on the capture of the game, hut 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 owners name engraved thereon; it flew on hoard 
a vessel hound from North Shields to Quebec, in 
latitude 44°, longitude 25° west, nearly midway be- 
tween the coasts of Europe and America, and died 
after being on board twenty days. From the in- 
scription 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 accom- 
plishment. 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 be- 
lieving that it had suffered from excessive fatigue or 
hunger during its flight. 
* Naturalises Magazine. 
