The Art and Practice of HawkingMichell, E. B. (Edward Blair)
History
The Art and Practice of Hawking
Michell, E. B. (Edward Blair)
Falconry
The glory of a falconer who goes in for game-hawking is "a falcon
towering in her pride of place"; and her "place" is some hundreds
of yards above her master's head. A high pitch is the beauty of a
game-hawk. It is what enables her to kill, and to kill well. The best
game-hawks go up until they look quite small in the sky. A thousand
feet is often attained. When a peregrine is as high as this, it matters
comparatively little whereabouts the game gets up. She can come down
upon them nearly as easily at an angle of 70° or 80°, as at an angle
of 90°. Sometimes even more easily. The time occupied in coming down
is a mere nothing compared with the time which would be occupied in
flying along the level to the same spot. When once, therefore, you see
your hawk at a good pitch, use every effort to get up the game. When
she sees the men running she will very likely be all the more ready to
keep in a good place. After a week or two's practice she will know well
enough what the whole show means, and will play her part in it _con
amore_.
If your hawk will not mount properly, but potters about in a useless
way at a mean height, you may try other plans. You may call her off
half a mile or so from the lee side of an open moor, and, as she comes
across it up-wind, let beaters from each side try to drive grouse
inwards towards her line of flight. If you can once enable her to take
a grouse there are hopes of her yet. You may even fly her from the
fist at a grouse if you can get near enough to one to make it at all
likely that she will catch it. I have seen this done with a backward
young falcon, which would not wait on. There ensued a stern chase all
along the ground for at least half a mile, both birds flying at almost
exactly the same pace. The sight was ridiculous enough; but in the end
the falcon managed to catch the grouse, and was allowed to take her
pleasure on it. The success, small as it was, saved the hawk at anyrate
from being disgusted with grouse-hawking, as she would otherwise
very soon have been. It is wonderful what good is done to a young
hawk by catching a difficult quarry by her own unaided efforts. The
encouragement she derives from it is occasionally so great that she
seems suddenly to develop her latent powers beyond all expectation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account