At this padded lure the hawk may be allowed to strike freely in the air as it is swung. Gers and merlins are all very clever at this work, and often seem to enjoy vastly this opportunity of exercising their muscles and their intelligence. Some of them are amazingly clever in getting hold of the lure. Not only do they foresee exactly where the swing you are giving to the lure will bring it the moment when they pass; but, if you are in the habit of interrupting that swing by giving it a particular jerk or twist in another direction, they will discount, as it were, this trick, and anticipate your little plan. Considerable adroitness is required on the part of the falconer also. By the employment of some cunning, he can encourage his hawk to great exertions, and can very greatly increase both her speed and her footing powers. If the stoop is very narrowly eluded by this dead lure, working under your guidance, the hawk is not unlikely to think that it was her own slowness of flight which made her too late. If you can encourage this idea, she will strive to improve her pace, and fly to the lure almost as hard as she would at a wild quarry. I have repeatedly seen merlins with their mouths open after five minutes of this work. The best plan is to let the hawk touch the lure whenever she specially distinguishes herself, whether by a very hard down stoop, or a high throw-up, or as it may be. Let the lure be as small as it can be, consistently with sufficient weight and softness, and whenever the hawk touches it, whether by your leave or without it, immediately let it fall on the ground; and let the hawk come down to it, if she did not bind when she touched. This is a very important particular in the case of eyesses. It teaches them that a swift stoop which even grazes the quarry is better than all the slow ones which miss it. As for passage hawks, they need not to be taught this. But for them, in consideration of the hardness of their stoop, I have sometimes found it well to use a modification of the soft lure. I have diminished its weight and bulk, so that it can be struck without any fear at all of hurting the hawk’s feet; and at the end of the cord or leash to which it is attached, I have fastened the solid weight which is necessary to prevent carrying. This weight may be held in the left hand, while the lure is swung by the right; and when the successful stoop has been made, both can be allowed to fall on the ground.
I have said that some great authorities disapprove of this method of exercising hawks. They say that in the case of game-hawks it spoils them for waiting on, and that in the case of rook-hawks and gull-hawks, the habit of looking for the lure makes them less keen at sighting their wild quarry. There is a great deal in these objections; and I shall not presume to decide between the advocates and opponents of the practice. As regards game-hawks, however, where a hawk has once taken to mounting well, I should certainly not advise any stooping to the lure, for fear of spoiling her pitch. As regards other hawks, I think some part of the force of the objections is removed if the place where the hawks are stooped to the lure is altogether different from any place in which they are likely to be flown at wild quarry. In lark-hawking it is certainly very essential that the hawk should get sighted at once. But though I have habitually made my merlins stoop at the lure in the early morning, I have not found them in consequence slow in starting at quarry in the afternoon. It cannot be denied that, as far as the hawk’s condition is concerned, stooping at the lure is a grand resource. If you were always quite sure of giving your hawk a hard flight at wild quarry every day, that would doubtless be the best thing for her. But who can be sure of this? Bad weather, scarcity of quarry, and several other causes make it only too certain that there will be many interruptions. But even when you cannot give your hawk a real flight, you can generally stoop her to the lure, and ensure that she has at anyrate had a “breather” during the day. It is very rarely so windy during a whole day that a trained hawk cannot be put on the wing. A peregrine in good condition ought not to be excused by anything short of a whole gale from daily exercise, even if it amounts to no more than calling off or stooping three or four times at the lure.
It is a good thing, even after a hawk is fully made and is flying wild quarry daily, to call her off occasionally to the lure, though you have no need to do so. Sometimes a hawk will have a long run of kills without a miss. I have known such a run to last with a merlin to over thirty. During all the time while such a score is being made, there will have been no occasion to use the lure, except perhaps when a quarry has put in and has had to be routed out. She runs a risk, therefore, of forgetting all about that humble apparatus, to which a few days ago she trusted so confidently for her food. Let her memory, therefore, be refreshed occasionally, by interpolating a fly to the dead lure amongst the long series of uniformly successful flights. Otherwise, at the first unsuccessful one, you may find that the once loved object has lost all its attractions.
Rook-Hawking
Eyesses, as well as passage peregrines, may be flown at the rook; but this quarry is more suitable for a falcon than a tiercel. Mr. O’Keefe used eyess falcons for this flight, and once killed with them on the Curragh of Kildare as many as 117 in three weeks. William Barr had an eyess which, when entered to rooks, took as many as seven in nine flights. Comet, belonging to Mr. Brodrick, took many rooks. It is only rather exceptionally that a tiercel can be got to fly them. But Mr. Newcome’s passage tiercel, Will o’ the Wisp, took them very well. The difficulty which is generally experienced in entering falcons to rooks is much greater in their brothers’ case. And the superiority of the passage hawk over the eyess is more marked in this flight than in game-hawking. Besides peregrines, several other kinds of long-winged hawks may be trained to take this quarry—gers of both sexes, lanners, and perhaps some lannerets, and the shaheen falcon, both black and red. No doubt the saker of both sexes would afford excellent sport with rooks. I am not aware that the training of any of these hawks for such a flight differs from that recommended for the peregrine.
For a rook-flight very open country is required. It would be no use to attempt it in what is called a well-wooded district, or where hedge-row trees grow as they do in the far greater part of cultivated England. A single tree, or even tall bush, will ruin a whole square mile of otherwise suitable ground. Nor is it sufficient that the land should be clear of trees and buildings. Many other obstacles, such as tall, stiff hedges, wire railings, and even sheep-folds, full or empty, are detrimental to the sport. A flock of sheep, a drove of pigs, or even a herd of cattle being driven along, is quite enough to utterly spoil a good flight. Thus in all England there are but few places where you can carry on this sport with success. Amongst them are parts of the Berkshire and Wiltshire downs, and some of the South-downs, though these are usually too undulating. Parts of Norfolk, especially near Lakenheath, are good; and so are portions of the fen country, where there is not too much water. In the North of England and in several counties in Ireland there are moors and open spaces which do well.
It must not be supposed, however, that the passage peregrine, or any other of the big long-winged hawks, any more than the eyesses, take kindly to rook-flying. Some have so little fancy for this unattractive quarry, that they can never by any skill be induced to fly them with any zest. Generally it is necessary to use either a make-hawk or bagged quarry for entering the beginners. The way in which such quarry are used has been sufficiently explained in the last chapter. But, as everyone does not know how to catch a rook, a few hints borrowed from the sister art of bird-catching may not be out of place. The commonest way of entrapping a rook is to send a boy up to the top of a tree in a well-frequented rookery with the end of a string, with which he can make a noose or nooses, and set them on the old nests to which the birds resort before roosting for the night. At the moment when the noisy crowd come back to the rookery and settle on their accustomed perches, a simultaneous pull at several lines connected with properly-laid nooses will generally secure a victim or more. Another plan by which a rook is made to look even more foolish is to go round with a plough in a field where rooks come to pick up the worms which it turns up. The rook-catcher must be provided with a number of paper hoods made like large extinguishers, and these he will place upside down in the furrow with a tempting bait—grain, worm, or meat—in their inside. The rest of the inside of each cap is well smeared with bird-lime or some other very sticky matter; and the rook, in picking at the food, may be hoped sometimes to hood himself. Then while in his astonishment he struggles to get rid of this blinding fool’s cap, he may be picked up and carried off into captivity.