I think that among the most remarkable and liberating changes that have come to modern falconry is the tendency to keep trained hawks unleashed when the initial maning period is over. The benefits thus gained are endless. The first porgressive step is to let into mews just sufficient daylight to enable the occupying hawk to descend to the floor and to fly upwards to regain the screen-perch. Next, when the hawk has lost its fear, the shutters which shut out the light are removed, leaving vertical wooden bars in the front of the mews so that the hawk is still confined to limited space. When falconer and hawk are on familiar terms the falconer is glad to permit his bird into the attached wired hawk aviary.
Perches are high up under the aviary's wired top.
The advantages of this is that it forces a hwak to fly almost vertically upwards. This exercise produces bulging and hardened muscles under the wings, designed to increase the hawk's speed. In the mews is a concrete nesting ledge projecting from the wall. A nesting box in the vaiary provides the limited shelter required. About the Author Few naturalists and fewer falconers have developed greater reputations than Ronald Stevens.