meet with a more or less discouraging failure. Far better to observe the old maxim, "_Fiat experimentum in corpore vili_." Let the young falconer not attempt to run before he can walk fairly well. When he has taught his kestrel to wait on and stoop to the lure, and has either by preventive care or by successful imping got her in perfect plumage, let him feed her up and "whistle her down the wind" to shift for herself, and then consider himself qualified to make a more serious attempt with a sparrow-hawk, merlin, or peregrine. [Illustration: TRAINED KESTREL "THUNDERBOLT" OWNED BY MR. R. GARDNER] II. THE SHORT-WINGED HAWKS Regarded from the falconer's point of view, the short-winged hawk differs essentially from her more honourable cousin of the long wings in the following particulars. She cannot be taught to "wait on" in the air. Although she will on occasions stoop from above at her quarry, she does not habitually capture it by a downward stroke or blow, but by following it from behind and "trussing" or "binding" to it. She manifests her readiness to fly by a condition of body which is called by the quaint, and apparently Oriental, name of "yarak," in which she shows evident signs of eagerness and excitement, and is obviously on the _qui vive_--attentive to every sight and sound which she may suppose to indicate the presence of quarry or the hope of a flight. She kills her quarry, when taken, by crushing it in her strong foot and piercing it with her long and sharp claws, or pounces. She follows her quarry, when it is possible, into covert; and when this is not possible she takes stand readily on some convenient resting-place, such as the branch of a tree, the top of a wall, or on her trainer's fist. As a general rule she does not need to be kept to any one particular quarry, or flown at any particular time of day, but may be thrown off at anything, whether fur or feather, which she thinks she can take, and will do almost any amount of work at almost any hour.