242 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



establish themselves in and near the nostrils, and may be seen 

 running about rapidly over the beak. They cause great annoy- 

 ance, and if not put an end to will eat into the horn of the beak, 

 and cause inflammation and other serious mischief They dis- 

 like, however, the tobacco wash, and cannot keep their ground 

 against it. 



Corns and swelled feet are the result almost invariably of 

 standing on hard and unpadded blocks or perches. They are, 

 of course, both painful and also highly detrimental to the effici- 

 ency of a hawk, whose feet as a weapon of attack are only 

 second in importance to her wings. The corn must be cut out, or 

 the inflamed swelling lanced, and the foot must be bathed with 

 some lotion, such as white of egg, vinegar, and rose-water, or 

 with tincture of iodine. A very well-padded perch must be 

 used afterwards, and a fortifying lotion frequently applied. In- 

 flammation is sometimes set up by the prick of a thorn, when a 

 hawk has trod upon a bramble, or grasped it when making a grab 

 at a quarry which has put into a hedge. The worst form of 

 corn is called " pin," and is pointed like a nail. Lancing and 

 lotions may cure it ; but it is an obstinate complaint, often 

 incurable ; and the various unguents prescribed by ancient 

 authors seem none of them to have been used with any great 

 success. 



When a claw or talon is broken by any accident, the fal- 

 coner is advised to apply to it a plaster made of the gall- 

 bladder of a fowl, and to fit a sort of collar round the hawk's 

 neck to act as a guard, so that she cannot touch the place with 

 her beak. The same thing may be done when a hawk has a 

 wound or sore on the foot, and keeps picking at it, a practice 

 not uncommon with merlins, which will actually eat away their 

 own feet. 



The blain is a watery vesicle in the second joint of the wing. 

 It should be lanced, and the hawk kept quiet until the wing is 

 strong again. 



For a " snurt," or cold in the head, Bert recommends the root 

 of wild primrose dried in an oven and powdered. The powder 

 is to be blown into the nares of the hawk. Or the leaves of the 

 wild primrose may be distilled, and the nares bathed with the 

 juice. 



Craye is a stoppage in the " tewel," or lower bowel. It is said 

 that the meat should be washed in distilled haws, or a decoction 

 of primprivet, or drawn through milk warm from the cow. 



Rye is a swelling in the head, which is said to be produced 



