50 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



The hawk will be unable to open the wing, which will be to all 

 intents and purposes as useless to her, as long as the brail is on, 

 as if all the flight feathers in it had been cut. 



A bath must always be offered to a trained hawk at least 

 twice a week, and oftener in fine and warm weather. And it 

 is not a thing which can always be improvised very easily. 

 The best baths are sunk in the ground, so that there are no 

 upstanding sides round or under which a leash can get en- 

 tangled. But of course, unless great care is taken, the ground 

 round the edges of such a bath is apt to become slushy and 

 dirty, if much used. Whenever it is impossible to sink the 

 bath in the earth it is necessary that some person should be at 

 hand when the hawks are bathing, so that if the leash gets 

 entangled he may come to the rescue. 



Many hawks have a tiresome way of jumping on and off 

 the sides of the bath, and running round it — in fact, as 

 Winchester boys say, " funking on the bank " — in complete 

 oblivion of the fact that they are thereby hitching up their 

 leashes. For such hawks it is best to take off the leash 

 and substitute a creance three or four yards long, attaching 

 the end of this to the block on which they are deposited at 

 the side of the bath. All baths should be of a sufficient size. 

 For gers they should be nearly a foot deep at least, and well 

 over a yard in diameter. For the smallest jack-merlin they 

 should be not less than four inches deep. A hawk will not 

 fully enjoy her bath unless she can wade into it, if she chooses, 

 up to her shoulders and over. In shallow water she is more or 

 less uncomfortable. Like Alexander the Great, in the small 

 world of antiquity, cBstuat infelix angusto in liniite ; and her 

 back and the nape of her neck are never properly wetted, 

 however much she may splash about in the endeavour to throw 

 the water over them. The bath should be tilted up, so that it 

 is shallower at one end than the other, and the bather may 

 get in, if she chooses, at the shallow end, and wade out as 

 far as she likes towards the other. According to immemorial 

 custom a few pebbles should be thrown in to lie on the floor 

 of the bath. When the weather is very cold, a cup or two of 

 hot water may be added, to take off the chill ; and if the water 

 used is taken from a deep and cool well it should be allowed 

 to stand for some time in the sun before being put out for 

 the hawks. Cemented basins in the ground make, of course, 

 capital bathing-places. But they are troublesome to keep 

 clean, and even to empty; and the surrounding edges are 



