Heron-hawking.--Great Bustard.--Stock-dove in Rabbit-hole.--
"Dowe" Dogs.--Search for Bustards' Eggs.
The boys were to see a little more hawking. One of the gentlemen who
shot their hawk was kind enough to give them an invitation to spend a
few days at his house near Thetford, with the promise that he would show
them some hawking carried on in the good old fashion, and with splendid
hawks brought from Iceland. A neighbour of his cultivated hawking, and
spared no expense in the noble pastime.
The boys debated some time whether they should accept this invitation or
not. Frank was still sore about the loss of his hawks, and hardly cared
to see others more successful than himself, but Dick said,--
"Don't be selfish, Frank. When you see the sport you will forget all
about our loss; and besides, the invitation is meant kindly, and we
ought not to refuse it out of pique."
Frank saw the wisdom of this, and so one fine November day they found
themselves in company with their host, walking across the immense tract
of common, or warren, which lies between Thetford and Brandon. They were
on their way to "the meet." On a knoll where a single fir-tree raised
its red stem in the wintry sunlight were assembled a number of ladies
and gentlemen, some on horseback, and some on foot. Two men came up
bearing square frames, on which were the hawks, large falcons, which had
been brought at great expense from Holland and Iceland. They were
hooded, and the hoods were gaily decorated with tassels and feathers.
"What are they going to fly the hawks at?" asked Dick. "They won't waste
the energy of such magnificent birds as those on rabbits and plovers,
and I see nothing else about."
"They expect some herons will pass over on their way from their
feeding-grounds to the heronry," said Frank.
[Illustration: COMMON HERON.]
Presently the company moved forwards, as a speck on the distant horizon
told of the probable approach of their quarry. As it came nearer it
proved to be a heron, and its flight was directed straight towards them,
and at no great distance from the ground. When the advancing bird came
within one hundred yards of the group, it seemed to think there might be
some danger awaiting it, and it swerved aside continuing its course so
as to pass them on one side. Two of the hawks were unhooded, and the
noble birds, catching sight of their quarry, launched into the air in
pursuit of it. When the heron saw the hawks it uttered a cry, and
immediately rose in the air and soared to a great height. The meaning of
this was apparent when the hawks, instead of attacking it on a level
with themselves, circled up with great swiftness, and tried to rise
above the heron, so that they might swoop down upon it. The heron rose
with outstretched neck, and wings which moved with great swiftness, in
spite of their size; but the hawks still soared and soared in wide
circles, and the party below rode and ran keeping as nearly as possible
under the birds. The hawks had now risen above the heron, but still they
went on circling higher and higher, until they were mere specks in the
sky. Then they suddenly grew large as they swooped down, and the heron
gave another cry, and half turned on his back as they struck him almost
simultaneously, and hawks and heron fluttered down a struggling mass to
the ground. The hawks were taken off and hooded, and after a short
interval another heron came in sight, and the other two hawks were flown
at it.
When the sport was over, Frank got hold of one of the warreners who had
come to see it and asked him if he had ever seen any great bustards
about the warren, or the adjacent fens.
"Oh, ay, sir, when I was a lad many and many a one have I seen, but now
I have not seen one for more than three years. They be almost killed out
of the land now. One is to be seen every two or three years, but it is
always shot or trapped."
"What sort of a bird is a great bustard?" asked Dick.
"It is a game bird as large as a full-sized turkey, and far better
eating. There used to be droves of them on the fens and the warrens, but
they were shot and trapped right and left. I mind when I was a boy I
have seen as many as twenty together on a warren, and then the warreners
used to set a battery of guns, and have a long string fastened to all
the triggers. Maybe the string was half a mile long, and then the men at
work on the warrens, or the marshes, had orders to pull the string when
they saw the bustards within reach of the guns. They used to stalk them
by walking on the off-side of a horse, and, keeping it between them and
the bustards, walk round and round until they came within shot."
The warrener was a very intelligent man, and he told them much about the
habits of this noble bird, which is now nearly extinct in England.
"Have you ever found its nest?" asked Jimmy.
"Yes, when I was a lad I found two or three. The eggs were good eating,
so we took them, and as they were big eggs and laid on the ground, it
was easy enough to find their nests if you knew where to look."
"I suppose you haven't got any of their eggs now?" said Frank.
"No, sir, I haven't; but I have a notion that two or three years ago I
saw two or three of their eggs in a cottage somewhere over yonder."
[Illustration: GREAT BUSTARD.]
He pointed to the western sky, but to the boys' eyes no cottages were
visible; and upon their asking him for further information, he told them
that beyond a ridge of trees which crested a warren were some half-dozen
cottages, and he thought it was in one of those that he had seen
bustards' eggs, but he was not at all sure.
"What is the meaning of this?" asked Dick, pointing to the mouth of a
rabbit-hole which was barred in with sticks like a cage. Inside the
sticks were the feathers and part of the skeleton of a stock-dove.
The warrener replied,--
"The doves breed in the rabbit-holes, and we warreners keep a 'dowe'
dog, which will tell us at once what holes have nests in them; and then,
when the young ones are almost ready to fly, we fasten them in the
burrow with sticks, just like that, and the old ones feed the young ones
through the bars, and when the young ones are fit to eat we kill them. I
suppose the man who fastened that burrow in forgot where it was, or the
young one died before it was worth eating."
[Illustration: DOVES.]
The boys now had to go back with their host, who, by the way, made them
so comfortable that they forgave him for shooting their hawk.
The next day found the boys approaching the cottages where the warrener
told them the bustards' eggs might be found.
"Now," said Frank, as they stopped under the lee of the wood, "let us
have a consultation. How had we better go to work? If we show them that
we have come specially for the eggs they will ask too great a price for
them. I vote we go and ask for a drink of water, and then praise the
children, if any, and so get into conversation; and then ask in an
incidental way about the bustards."
This seemed the proper way of going to work, so they appointed Frank
spokesman, and then marched up to the nearest cottage. A woman opened
the door to them, and peeping in, they saw behind her half-a-dozen
children, all young.
"Can you give us a drink of water, ma'am?" said Frank, in his politest
tone.
"Oh yes, sir," answered the woman with a curtsey. "Won't you step
indoors. But wouldn't you like a cup of milk better than water?"
"Thank you, very much," replied Frank. "But what nice little children
you have got," and he patted one on the head.
"Lovely," said Jimmy enthusiastically, and picking out the cleanest he
kissed it.
"Well, sir," answered the woman with a smile, "they be as healthy as
most, and as fine I dare say, but they are a great deal of trouble."
"Ah, I have no doubt they are," replied Frank sympathizingly; and as he
spoke his eyes were wandering about, looking at the ornaments on the
chimney-piece to see if any eggs were there; but nothing of the kind was
to be seen.
"This is a fine open country, ma'am."
"It is that, sir," she said.
"And plenty of rabbits and plovers about."
"There are that, sir."
"Have you ever seen any bustards about?"
"No, I have heard tell of them, but it was before my time."
"And I suppose you have never seen any nests or eggs?"
"No, sir, never; but my little boy has some throstle's eggs, if so be as
you would like to have them."
"No, thank you," said Frank; and thanking her for the milk, and
bestowing a small coin on one of the children, the boys made their exit.
"It is your turn to do the next kissing, Dick," said Jimmy.
"All right," replied Dick cheerfully.
The cottages lay at some little distance apart, and they visited them
all in turn, but with the like ill success. Then, as they were thinking
of giving it up as a bad job, they espied another small cottage in a
little hollow, by a well.
"Let us try this, for the last one," said Frank.
"Very well," said Jimmy "but pray, don't ask for any more to drink. I
have the best intentions in the world, but I really cannot find room for
any more."
Beside the cottage was a silvery-haired old man, mending a broken
paling. Frank went straight at it this time.
"Good morning."
"Good morning, sir," replied the man, touching his hat.
"Have you ever seen any bustards' eggs?"
"Yes, sir, I have two in the house. Would you like to see them?"
"We should."
"Then step in, sirs. I can give 'ee a glass of good nettle beer."
Jimmy groaned inwardly at the mention of the beer, but the sight of the
eggs upheld him.
"Here they be, sir," said the old man, taking down two brown eggs with
rusty spots on them, off the chimney-piece. "I took them myself out of
the nest in yon fen when I was a lad."
"Will you sell them?"
"Ay, sure. It be a wonder how they come not to be broken, for I have
taken no particular heed of them."
"What will you take for them?"
"What you likes to give, sir."
"I would rather you would fix your own price."
"Well, then, if you give me a shilling, I shall be fain."
"No, no, they are worth more than a shilling. We cannot afford to give
you what you would get in London for them, and it is only fair to tell
you so, but we will give you half-a-crown apiece for them."
"I shall be very glad to have that much for them, sir, if you think they
are worth it to you."
So the bargain was concluded, and the boys became the happy possessors
of these rare eggs.
I have just been reading, in the _Field_ a very interesting account of
the appearance of a great bustard in Norfolk. A gentleman there was told
by one of his men that he had seen a "wonderful cur'us bird like a
pelican," in a wild part of the fen. The gentleman at once went to look
at it, and being a naturalist, he was much delighted to find that it was
a bustard, and observation through a telescope told him that it was a
cock bird. He gave strict orders that it was not to be shot, and that
any prowling gunner found on his land was to be consigned without
ceremony to the bottom of the nearest dyke. Then he sent for well-known
naturalists from Cambridge and elsewhere, to come and watch the motions
of the bird. It was feeding in a lonely part of the fen, in a patch of
cole seed, and, each man being armed with a telescope of some sort or
other, they had good views of it, both flying and walking. The news soon
spread among the naturalists of the county, and one of them, who had
some tame bustards in confinement, generously offered to give one of
them to be let loose to pair with the wild cock. A female bustard was
accordingly turned out into the fen as near to the wild bird as they
dared to venture without frightening him away, and after a short time,
they had the pleasure of seeing the two walking about together. In a day
or two more the hen was found dead in a dyke. Her wings having been
clipped she could not fly far enough. Another female was procured, but
while seeking for an opportunity of turning it out where the wild one
could see it, the wild one flew away. It was heard of afterwards in a
different part of the county, and it does not appear yet to have been
killed, and the landowners have given orders that it shall not be
destroyed. I am looking forward with interest for further accounts of
it.