234 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



which the hawk has to stand. One of the cruellest of all the 

 cruel things done in zoological gardens is the neglect to pad 

 the miserable perches provided for the birds of prey, which are 

 usually in consequence seen to have their feet adorned plenti- 

 fully with corns and deformities. What with bad food, bad 

 resting-places, and defective bathing accommodation, these poor 

 captives are usually types of what the falconer should wish that 

 his hawks may not become. 



Of actual illnesses trained hawks undoubtedly have their 

 full share. The old books devote many lengthy chapters to 

 the description of these disorders, and of the remedies recom- 

 mended for them. How far the elaborate concoctions prescribed 

 by mediaeval quacks and used, as it is to be presumed, by 

 their very credulous customers, were efficacious in curing the 

 evils for which they were prescribed, it is not easy to say. For 

 in modern times we do not put much faith in nostrums of any 

 such kind. But as the ancients certainly killed with their 

 hawks several species of quarry which we hardly attempt in 

 these days, it may not unreasonably be supposed that some of 

 their medicines were at least useful in stimulating the energies 

 of their patients, and inspiring them with a sort of artificial 

 courage such as the Asiatic falconers still impart by the use of 

 sal ammoniac and other powerful drugs. It is, I think, more 

 than probable that the hobby, which has not for a long time 

 past been successfully trained, was brought by physicking into 

 such condition that she would fly keenly and well, and deserved 

 the praises which some of the old writers lavish upon her. In 

 the palmy days of falconry it was not only when a hawk was 

 actually ill that physic was given. If she did not acquit herself 

 in the field with all the credit expected by her trainer, he dosed 

 her almost as a matter of course. Remedies of a more or less 

 fanciful kind were supposed to exist for almost every failing 

 which hawk-flesh is heir to ; and the medicine-cupboard of a 

 falconer who professed to know anything about physicking his 

 charges must have contained as many herbs, spices, powders, 

 decoctions, and tinctures as would stock a small druggist's shop. 

 As far as I know, no modern falconer has had the patience or temer- 

 ity to test the value of these multifarious pills and potions. 



The state of health of a hawk may be ascertained by various 

 signs, more or less infallible. Mutes, castings, and the general 

 demeanour furnish the most obvious symptoms ; but the books, 

 which bestow a vast amount of attention upon the two former, 

 are much too silent as to the latter and more subtle indication 



