amount of actual quickness. The hood used in learning to hood should be an easy one, very much cut away at the beak opening. And the hawk herself must be first so far manned that she will allow the intending hooder to pass his hand over the crown of her head, and to stroke her on the back without making any objection, or exhibiting any uneasiness. She should be accustomed to the sight of the hood, and have often been allowed to pick nice little morsels of meat from the outside of it. Then she may be allowed to pick a clean piece or two from the inside of it; and from the beak opening, under which, as the hood lies upside-down in your hand, you hold the seductive morsel. If a hawk is so treated as to become the least _afraid_ of the hood, it will be a work of dire difficulty, and almost impossibility in awkward hands, to break her to it, or cure her of the vice. And hawks are sometimes to be seen so mismanaged by their owners that they get into a "state of mind" at the mere sight of the obnoxious head-dress. A hood-shy hawk is not only a nuisance, but a discredit to her trainer. When the hawk has once gone so far as to dip her beak into the hood in search of a scrap of food, it requires no great dexterity to slip it over her head. While doing so the knuckles of the left hand should be turned slightly outwards, so that the hawk's head is naturally projected forwards towards the hood, and cannot easily be drawn back; whereas as soon as the hood is on the same knuckles should be turned a little inwards so that the head is held up. The braces can then be seized, one in the right finger and thumb, and the other by the teeth, and pulled tight, before the wearer can jerk or shake it off. Merlins are of all hawks the most difficult to hood, owing to their extreme vivacity and the quickness with which they discern and anticipate any movement of the trainer. But then their amenability to kind treatment is also so great that they can be handled, like a horse or dog, without offence, if a little patience is exhibited. And, once well broken to the hood, they will stand to it as well as peregrines or goshawks. Gers have a reputation for often being hood-shy; but perhaps the proper treatment of them, in this as in other respects, is now imperfectly understood.