. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. FALCONRY, THE SPORT OF KINGS 459. Drawing by Louis Agassiz Fuertes DRAWING OF THE FOOT OF A GOSHAWK (NATURAL SIZE) The Goshawk kills its prey by clutching, and driving its great talons into its victim's vitals, not releasing its hold until the quarry ceases to struggle (see Color Plate V and text, page 4S8). These, hawks are worked along hedge- rows or in woods, only being used in open ground on hares, rabbits, or pheasants. In thick cover they perch hard by, watch- ing for the instant the quarry may be put out by dogs or beate
. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. FALCONRY, THE SPORT OF KINGS 459. Drawing by Louis Agassiz Fuertes DRAWING OF THE FOOT OF A GOSHAWK (NATURAL SIZE) The Goshawk kills its prey by clutching, and driving its great talons into its victim's vitals, not releasing its hold until the quarry ceases to struggle (see Color Plate V and text, page 4S8). These, hawks are worked along hedge- rows or in woods, only being used in open ground on hares, rabbits, or pheasants. In thick cover they perch hard by, watch- ing for the instant the quarry may be put out by dogs or beaters. The short-wings are very much more intent on their game than are the falcons, and even in a wild state have been known to chase fowls into the farmer's kitchen and kill there. Dr. Fisher records an amusing instance in which a goshawk dashed in and seized a fowl which had that instant been killed by a farmer, drag- ging it only a few rods before starting to deplume it. In another case, a hawk pur- sued its quarry through the kitchen of a farm-house into a bedroom and there made its kill under the bed! While the strikes of this hawk are very hard and impetuous, they are usually short, and do not result in the exhaus- tion that follows a good flight by a falcon. Thus they may be flown many times in a day, and there is the record of old "Gaiety Gal," who was flown at 17 hares in one morning, trussing to all and killing clean all but the last, which, being excep- tionally strong and the hawk naturally weary, got away after a struggle. Sir Henry Boynton's "Red Queen" killed 24 rabbits in one day. There is something almost devilish about the fury of a goshawk's strike. Her yellow or orange eye, the pupil con- centrated to a cold point, fairly burns with ferocity, and the clutch of her awful foot is such that virtually no amount of twisting or somersaulting on the part of the hare or rabbit can dislodge the great piercing hooks. As an example of the goshawk's si
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