The art and practice of hawking - Modern Prepper

HOME LIFE 179
there is such a thing as a garnished lure in the foreground.
But suppose a passage peregrine, after stretching her wings for
five minutes at a height of a thousand feet, to catch sight of a
wood-pigeon crossing the open down. It would be almost too
much to expect that she should resist the temptation. In the
cool of the day, morning and evening, hawks very seldom soar
if they are sharp-set, and have had the chance of a bath most
fine days. It is from nine to four o'clock in summer that there
is the most risk of it ; and hobbies, which are greatly addicted
to the habit, should not be flown during these hours in fine
weather, unless the owner is prepared to wait twenty minutes,
or even longer, for my lord or my lady to finish airing herself
in the sky. Very special care must be taken of all hawks
during the migration season—that is, for some weeks after the
latter part of September and the beginning of April. At the
former period, indeed, it is barely safe to let hobbies wait on
at all; and the steadiest peregrines and merlins are apt to
feel more or less strongly the restlessness born of migratory
instincts. Many favourite hawks which seemed a few days
ago to be as safe as tame cats, have been known at migrating
time to develop quite suddenly an ungovernable wish to travel,
and have cleared for foreign parts when they had an opportunity,
without a moment's warning or a word of leave-taking.
Each hawk, after flying to the lure, will be immediately
fed up, usually on the way back to the hawk-house or the lawn.
As a rule, the earlier a hawk can be fed up the better, for she
will be the sooner ready for the field on the next day. Moreover,
she will fly better, probably, to the lure if she is aware that
that ordeal is often the precursor of a solid meal. The rather
common practice of feeding all the hawks at about the same
hour — generally late in the day—has nothing that I ever heard
of to recommend it. How can a hawk which habitually dines
at six o'clock or later be expected to be keen or to fly well
when thrown off at her quarry at three or four o'clock If a
peregrine, when it has been finally decided not to fly her in the
field that day, is fed at about eleven o'clock, she will be fit to
fly on the morrow at any time after noon. The falconer should
note in what order his hawks are fed, so that on the next day,
unless any special circumstances prevent it, those which have
been fasting the longest should be flown the first.
No hawk, after being fed up, should be disturbed, frightened,
or shaken about. If the return journey from the field or exercise-ground
is long, and the hawk inclined to bate off the fist,