HOME LIFE 173 



exceptional winters, to have any heating apparatus in the hawk- 

 house itself. Merlins and the tropical hawks, such as shaheens, 

 barbarys, and also the desert falcons, should, in cold or damp 

 weather at least, be placed in a room which is over a very 

 well-warmed apartment, and has the flue of one chimney at 

 least running along one of its sides. A room immediately 

 above a kitchen is pretty safe in all weathers for all hawks if 

 the fire is kept up all night, but not otherwise. Where the 

 room is unavoidably isolated, there must be a stove or some 

 heating apparatus ; but the heat thrown out must be very 

 moderate indeed, or the hawks when taken out for weathering, 

 or even when left stoveless by day, are nearly sure to catch 

 cold. Changes of temperature in our islands are sudden and 

 severe enough when due to natural causes only, but if they are 

 produced by artificial means no hawk can be expected to 

 endure them with impunity, and least of all gers, merlins, and 

 the denizens of the sunny south. The hardiest hawks are 

 peregrines and hobbies, but these, too, must be given a fair 

 chance, even if it entail upon their owner some inconvenience 

 and expense. Whenever the weather is very wet or damp, 

 with penetrating fogs, opportunity should be taken, when the 

 hawks are all out on their blocks or being carried, to warm the 

 hawk-house thoroughly by artificial means, and purge it of all 

 suspicion of damp. 



Adjoining the hawks' apartment should be another small 

 room, where lures and spare "furniture" can be kept. Meat 

 and food of all kinds should be rigorously excluded from the 

 first-mentioned room, but may be kept, if it is quite fresh, on 

 an emergency in the other, where blocks and bow-perches when 

 taken in out of the rain can be deposited. On the walls in either 

 room may be hung on small pegs or nails the hoods for each 

 kind of hawk ; but it is well to mark clearly above each peg a 

 description of the sort of hood which is intended to be there 

 hung, so that in a case of hurry one may not be mistaken for 

 another, and a tiercel's hood crammed on to a falcon, or a 

 female hobby's be found wobbling about on the head of a jack- 

 merlin. Every falconer should have in his cupboard a tin box 

 containing a supply of imping needles suitable for the hawks 

 which he keeps, and some spare feathers ready for imping. 

 The same box will hold other small paraphernalia and odds- 

 and-ends, such as waxed thread, pincers for " coping " or 

 blunting the beak and talons, tweezers for putting on jesses, 

 punches for making holes in leashes, scissors, files, and a scrap 



