The Art and Practice of HawkingMichell, E. B. (Edward Blair)
History
The Art and Practice of Hawking
Michell, E. B. (Edward Blair)
Falconry
If for any reason you wish your hawk to eat her quarry where she has
killed, attach the leash to her jesses and to a peg in the ground, or
to a field-block, leaving a man to watch her and keep a sharp look-out
against intruders. Although in the very open country, where alone the
long-winged hawks ought to be flown, there are not many interlopers in
the shape of stray dogs or tourists, yet it is wonderful how, with a
little bad luck at his heels, the falconer may be annoyed by unexpected
intruders. I well remember a valuable hawk being lost on Salisbury
Plain, not far from Stonehenge, by the appearance on the scene of an
object which one would hardly expect to see there, three miles from
the nearest village. The hawk, which was a bit shy to take up, was
discussing a well-earned meal upon a heap of stones by the side of a
cart-road, when along this road came a nurse-maid with a gaudy-hooded
perambulator. She got past the hawk, but not without exciting a large
share of its attention. Unfortunately, however, she caught sight of the
falconers hurrying up, and then of the hawk, and with that feeling of
curiosity which seems to be strongly developed in the genus nurse-maid,
turned the perambulator round, and began wheeling it straight towards
the hawk. This was altogether too much for the latter. Convinced that
some deadly mischief lurked in the strange machine approaching, she
picked up the remains of her quarry, and, taking it off with her, could
not be afterwards approached.
Only when the falconer is seen to have secured the victorious hawk,
and attached the leash to her jesses, is it permitted to the field
to go up. When time is precious, and there are a lot of hawks to be
flown, the line of march may proceed, leaving the work of taking up the
successful hawk to him who flew her; and when the next quarry is put
up, the next hawk in order may be thrown off by the man who carries
her. Otherwise it is best to get one flight altogether done with before
another is started. When the quarry has beaten off his pursuers and got
away, a lure or lures must be put in requisition; and one man, if he
can be spared, should remain, with lure in hand, near the place where
the hawk, if out of sight, was last seen. The others will follow on,
more or less quickly, in the direction she seemed to take. All trained
hawks have a certain inclination to return after an unsuccessful chase
towards the place from which they started in pursuit; and the man to
whom the easy duty of standing still is allotted generally has as good
a chance of taking up such a hawk as any one of those who have walked
or ridden forward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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