The art and practice of hawking - Modern Prepper

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hawk's attention and to cheer her on. " Hey, gar, gar, gar !
122 AKT AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING
mounting ; but presently they will be aware also of your
approach. Then there will be a small debate in their minds
or rather in that of their papa—whether it is best to keep still
and eventually be shot at, or to start off at once and at once
be stooped at. The nearer you approach, and the farther the
hawk rakes away, the more does the decision incline towards
making a bolt of it ; but papa grouse is not going to make a
fool of himself by bolting at the moment which you would
prefer. Your programme, of course, is to wait till your falcon
is heading in towards the dog, and then rush in upon the
hesitating assembly. Unfortunately, this plan does not fit in
with the views of the worthies in question. They have also
been waiting till the hawk's head was turned away, and now, as
she is near the outer part of her circle which is farthest from
the quarry, up they get, and off they go, whizzing along the
top of the heather.
At this stage of the proceedings the modern falconer does,
for once, find the use of his voice. He shouts loudly to call the
or " Hoo, ha, ha " are old-fashioned cries for encouraging a
!
falcon to stoop from her pitch, and are still often used. There
can be no doubt that a shout of some kind, or a blast on the
horn, if you prefer it, has an inspiriting effect on hawks, and that
not only when they start for their first descent, but at each
successive stoop. I almost fancy that I have actually seen
them cheer up as they heard a loud "Bravo" come from the
field far beneath after a brilliant stoop or a masterly throw-up !
It is with grouse and black-game, more than with any other
quarry, that you see at once when they get up the immense
advantage of a high pitch. When the falcon is some hundreds
of feet high she commands a wide area below. At the height
of a quarter of a mile it matters little whether the range of her
circling flight takes her a hundred yards to one side or the
other.
She can come down with equal ease upon any one spot
in an area of thirty acres.
No one knows how the speed and force of a falcon's stoop
are gained. All we can say is that it is the fastest movement
made by any living thing in the world. It is not flying, and it
is not falling, but a combination of the two, with some other
Mere weight must be at
impulse which we do not understand.
least a most important element, for a heavy hawk seems always
to come down quicker as well as far more forcibly than one of
the same species which is lighter. But weight is only one factor
in the agglomeration of influences which make the stoop of the
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