Note 569 — Chapter XXXVI · TRAINING THE “SHĀHĪN”[539]

In Europe the heron was justly considered a difficult quarry. Its powers of flight, however, have been greatly over-rated. A heron, even “on the passage,”[570] is an easy flight to a good passage hawk. But hawks, at any rate after the first flight or two, fly at this quarry with great deliberation, and stoop at it with some caution, for the heron when high up makes half-hearted dabs with its beak at the hawk. An experienced hawk generally knocks about the heron by stooping several times at the shoulder or point of the wing. I have known a “haggard” break the heron’s wing by a stoop. Some hawks bind to the heron’s feet sticking out behind, and so drag it down close to earth, out of range of its beak; they then close, on the ground.