The training of hawks affords much scope for judgment, experience and
skill on the part of the falconer, who must carefully observe the temper
and disposition as well as the constitution of each bird.
It is through
the appetite principally that hawks, like most wild animals, are tamed;
but to fit them for use in the field much patience, gentleness and care
must be used. Slovenly taming necessitates starving, and low condition
and weakness are the result. The aim of the falconer must be to have his
hawks always keen, and the appetite when. they are brought into the
field should be such as would induce the bird in a state of nature to
put forth its full powers to obtain its food, with, as near as possible,
a corresponding condition as to flesh.
The following is an outline of
the process of training hawks, beginning with the management of a
wild-caught peregrine falcon. When first taken, a rufter hood should be
put on her head, and she must be furnished with jesses, swivel, leash
and bell. A thick glove or rather gauntlet must be worn on the left hand
(Eastern falconers always carry a hawk on the right), and she must be
carried about as much as possible, late into the night, every day, being
constantly stroked with a bird’s wing or feather, very lightly at first.
At night she should be tied to a perch in a room with the window
darkened, so that no light can enter in the morning. The perch should be
a padded pole placed across the room, about 41/2 ft. from the ground,
with a canvas screen underneath. She will easily be induced to feed in
most cases by drawing a piece of beefsteak over her feet, brushing her
legs at the time and now and then, as she snaps, slipping
a morsel into her mouth.
Care must be taken to make a peculiar sound
with the lips or tongue, or to use a low whistle as she is in the act of
swallowing; she will very soon learn to associate this sound with
feeding, and it will be found that directly she hears it, she will gripe
with her talons, and bend down to feel for food. When the falconer
perceives this and other signs of her “coming to,” that she no longer
starts at the voice or touch, and steps quietly up from the perch
when the hand is placed under her feet, it will be time to change her
rufter hood for the ordinary hood. This latter should be very carefully
chosen—an easy fitting one, in which the braces draw closely and yet
easily and without jerking. An old one previously worn is to be
recommended.
The hawk should be taken into a very dark room, one
absolutely dark is best, and the change should be made if possible in
total darkness. After this she must be brought to feed with her hood
off; at first she must be fed every day in a darkened room, a gleam of
light being admitted. The first day, the hawk having seized the food and
begun to pull at it freely, the hood must be gently slipped off, and
after she has eaten a moderate quantity, it must be replaced as slowly
and gently as possible, and she should be allowed to finish her meal
through the hood. Next day the hood may be twice removed, and so on.;
day by day the practice should be continued, and more light gradually
admitted, until the hawk will feed freely in broad daylight, and suffer
the hood to be taken off and replaced without opposition. Next she must
be accustomed to see and feed in the presence of strangers and dogs. A good plan is to carry her in the streets of a town at night,
and where persons passing
by are few, unhooding and hooding her from time to time, but not letting
her get frightened.
Up to this time she should be fed on lean beefsteak
with no castings, but as soon as she is tolerably tame and submits well
to the hood, she must occasionally be fed with pigeons and other birds.
This should be done not later than 3 or 4 P.M., and when she is placed
on her perch for the night in the dark room, she must be unhooded and
left so, of course being carefully tied up. The falconer should enter
the room about 7 or 8 AM. next day, admitting as little light as
possible, or using a candle. He should first observe if she has thrown
her casting; if so, he will at once take her to the fist, giving her a
bite of food, and re-hood her. If her casting is not thrown it is better
for him to retire, leaving the room quite dark, and come in again later.
She must now be taught to know the voice, the shout that is used to call
her in the field, and to jump to the fist for food, the voice being used
every time she is fed.
When she comes freely to the fist she must be
made acquainted with the lure. Kneeling down with the hawk on his fist,
and gently unhooding her, the falconer casts out a lure, which may be
either a dead pigeon. or an artificial lure garnished with beefsteak
tied to a string, to a distance of a couple or three feet in front of
her. When she jumps down to it, she should be allowed to eat a little on
it—the voice being used—the while receiving morsels from the falconer’s
hand; and before her meal is finished she must be taken off to the hand,
being induced to forsake the lure for the hand by a tempting piece of
meat, This treatment will help to check her inclination hereafter to
carry her quarry. This lesson. is to be continued till the falcon feeds
very boldly on the lure on. the ground. in the falconer’s presence till
she will suffer him to walk round her while she is feeding.
Gradually day after day the distance is increased, till the hawk
will come 30 yds. or so without hesitation; then she may be trusted to
fly to the Lure at liberty, and by degrees from any distance, say 1000
yds. This accomplished, she should learn to stoop at the lure. Instead
of allowing the hawk to seize upon it as she comes up, the falconer should
snatch the lure away and let her pass by, and immediately put it
out that she may readily seize it when she turns round to look for it.
This should be done at first only once, and then progressively until she
will stoop backwards and forwards at the lure as often as desired. Next
she should be entered at her quarry. Should she be intended for rooks or
herons, two or three of these birds should be procured. One should be
given her from the hand, then one should be released close to her, and
a third at a considerable distance. If she take these keenly, she may he
flown at a wild bird. Care must, however, be taken to let her have every possible advantage in her first flights
wind and
weather, and the position of the quarry with regard to the surrounding
country, must be considered.
Young hawks, on being received by the falconer before they can fly,
must be put into a sheltered place, such as an outhouse or shed. Their
basket or hamper should be filled with straw. A hamper is best, with the
lid so placed as to form a platform for the young hawks to come out upon
to feed. This should be fastened to a beam or prop a few feet from the
ground. The young hawks must be most plentifully fed on the best fresh
food obtainable—good beefsteak and fresh-killed birds; the falconer when
feeding them should use his voice as in luring. As they grow old enough
they will come out, and perch about the roof of their shed, by degrees
extending their flights to neighboring buildings or trees, never
failing to come at feeding time to the place where they are fed. Soon
they will be continually on the wing, playing or fighting with one
another, and later the falconer will observe them chasing other birds,
as pigeons and rooks, which may be passing by. As soon as one fails to
come for a meal, it must be at once caught with a bow net or a snare the
first time it comes back, or it will be lost.
It must be borne in mind
that the longer hawks can be left at hack the better they are likely to
be for use in the field, those hawks being always the best which have
preyed a few times for themselves before being caught. Of course there
is great risk of losing hawks when they begin to prey for themselves.
When a hawk is so caught she is said to be taken up from hack. She
will not require a rufter hood, but a good deal of the management
described for the passage falcon will be necessary. She must be
carefully tamed and broken to the hood in the same manner, and so taught
to know the lure; but, as might be expected, very much less difficulty
will be experienced.
As soon as the eyas knows the lure sufficiently
well to come to it sharp and straight from a distance, she must be
taught to “wait on.” This is effected by letting the hawk loose in an
open place, such as a down. It will be found that she will circle round
the falconer looking for the lure she has been accustomed to see—perhaps
mount a little in the air, and advantage must be taken of a favorable moment when the hawk is at a little height, her head being turned in
towards the falconer, to let go a pigeon which she can easily catch.
When the hawk has taken. two or three pigeons in this way, and mounts
immediately in expectation, in short, begins to wait on, she should see
no more pigeons, but be tried at game as soon as possible. Young
peregrines should be flown at grouse first in preference to partridges,
not only because the season commences earlier, but because, grouse being
the heavier birds, they are not so much tempted to “carry” as with
partridges.
