3-034-816 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Hawking at Hendon, 1871. 'Falconer bearing frame unhooding hawk; Luring the Hawk from his Quarry; Hawk seizing the Lure; The Start...Londoners have had an excellent opportunity of seeing trained falcons on the wing [during] an afternoon's pigeon-hawking. The hawks are carried to the field upon "the cadge," an oblong square frame...As soon as [the hawk] has attained a good altitude, which she rapidly and gracefully does, the falconer throws up a pigeon against the wind, and the race then begins...the spectators are becoming excited. The superior speed and greater endurance of the falcon at length begin to tell, and at the third stoop, resembling more the passage of a ball than of a bird through the air, the pigeon is struck headlong to the ground. Rapidly the hawk follows, and, pouncing upon its quarry, its powerful bill divides the cervical vertebrae at the base of the skull, and the pigeon has ceased to live. It is at this juncture that "the lure" is brought into play...A dead pigeon of a light colour, tied by the legs to a long string, generally answers the purpose...When game is scarce or pigeons unprocurable, the practice known to falconers as flying at the lure furnishes a capital means of exercising the hawks and keeping them in health'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.