As they sailed back, Frank said,--

"Now that our hawks are trained so beautifully we shall have good sport with them."

But he was doomed to be disappointed. Two days after they took them into the open country, and a rabbit darting out of a tuft of gra.s.s, they flew one of the hawks at it. It struck the rabbit, and clung to it while it ran into its burrow, and the n.o.ble bird was killed by the shock. The boys were very much grieved at this, and resolved not to fly the other hawk at four-footed game. While they were crossing Sir Richard Carleton's land they flushed a solitary partridge, which appeared to have been wounded, and flew slowly. It had doubtless been left behind by its more active companions. They let the hawk fly, and it followed the partridge around the corner of a plantation. The report of a gun followed, and, running up, they found their worst apprehensions realized. The hawk had been shot dead by one of two gentlemen, who, with a couple of dogs, were out shooting. They were guests of Sir Richard's, and when they found the hawk was a tame one they were very profuse in their apologies. The boys did not care to make very civil replies, but walked quietly and sadly away.

Their cup of bitterness was for the time full.

"So ends our hawking," said Frank as they separated.

"Yes; this is the unluckiest day we have had yet," answered Jimmy.

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

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 n.o.ble 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 d.i.c.k 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 a.s.sembled 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 ta.s.sels and feathers.

"What are they going to fly the hawks at?" asked d.i.c.k. "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 pa.s.s over on their way from their feeding-grounds to the heronry," said Frank.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 pa.s.s them on one side. Two of the hawks were unhooded, and the n.o.ble 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 ma.s.s 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 d.i.c.k.

"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 n.o.ble 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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 d.i.c.k, 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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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."