The art and practice of hawking - Modern Prepper

88 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING
fingers of the gloved left hand, invite her to step on to them and
to the knuckles. The next short step is to get her to jump
from the perch to the hand. When once she will do this, even
if the jump is one of an inch only, the distance can soon be
made much greater. But in order to succeed with this lesson
she must not be tantalised. It is no good to stand for five
minutes with the left hand outstretched and a piece of meat on
or near it within six inches of your hawk, when she is in no
humour to make the leap which seems to her so perilous.
When she will not come, humour her, and put the meat nearer,
so that she can get it without jumping. Sooner or later she
will find that the meat so placed before her is not a trap or a
sham, but really meant for her delectation, and that she can get
it a little quicker if she chooses to go for it. There is no use
in telling her the story of Mahomet and the mountain, but you
can illustrate the theory by a sort of practical dumb-show. If
a more advanced pupil is placed on the perch next to the slow
learner, the latter will see how much quicker her sister
gets the
proffered delicacies by jumping for them. As soon as she will
come a little way from the screen-perch, try her from a block,
and then from a gate-post out of doors. Keep her at this exercise
for some days, but do not make a toil of it to her ;
merely
let her know that if she comes for it, she will get the tit-bit
at once, whereas, if she does not, she will get it all the later.
Next comes the lure. Passage hawks are notoriously and
naturally bad at the lure. Nothing in their previous experience
at all leads up to it ; and you have to teach them an entirely
new lesson. Consequently, you must take pains about it, and
be prepared for disappointments and delays. The lure is as
important to the falconer as a hook to a fisherman, or a bridle
to a rider. To take a long-winged hawk out to the field without
a lure would be almost as silly as to go out shooting without
any cartridges. When first introduced to the pupil the lure
must be well garnished with attractive and palatable viands.
It is by no means enough to throw down a freshly-killed pigeon
in front of the hungry hawk. She is quite likely, if a passager,
to stare at it absently, and apparently without any very defined
belief that it is at all good to eat. After a minute or so she
is not unlikely to look the other way, and pay no more attention
to your well-intended bait. But you must not then be surprised,
or begin exclaiming at her "stupidity." If the passager
will not come to the dead pigeon, take a lure and cover it with
chopped meat. Give her pieces off this, and presently let her
pick them off it. Then let her walk towards the lure to get the