272 KEMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



or sere ; and the nostrils as the nares. The legs, from 

 above downwards, were called arms, the toes petty 

 singles, and the claws pounces. The wings of the hawk 

 were its sails, as their long feathers were beams. A 

 subdivision of the wing feathers gave to the two longest 

 in each wing the term of principal feathers, and to the two 

 next that of flags. Imping of these feathers was artificially 

 mending them. The tail was called the train, as the 

 feathers underneath it, and behind the thigh, are called 

 the pendant feathers. The craw or crop in hawks, as 

 rather a distension of the gullet than a distinct pouch, 

 was called the gorge. The stomach was known as the 

 pannel, and the fsecal matter within the intestines the 

 glut. It may be prudent to observe that gorge is more 

 particularly used to imply abundant feeding. Summed 

 or unsummed were terms applied to the complete or 

 mature and the immatiued plumage, bearing the same 

 signification as mewed or unmoulted, and intermewed 

 and moulted. Seamed was a want of condition, as in- 

 seamed was perfect condition. Put in ; the game, when 

 it takes to a hedge to evade pursuit, was said to put in : 

 vjaiting on — to teach a hawk to well wait or, i. e. to 

 readily attend to her master, is the very feather in the 

 master's cap, when, soaring aloft in the air, the hawk 

 bends herself to watch all his motions. 



The age of a hawk has its vai-ious designations. The 

 fijst year it is a soarage; the second an interview, the 

 third year a ivhite haivk, the fourth year a hawk of 

 the first coat. Bate, is when the hawk fluttereth ^\ith her 

 wing, either from the perch or fist ; as it were striving to 

 get away. Bewits, are the leather, with bells, buttoned 

 about the hawk's legs. Binding is when a hawk seizeth. 

 Boicet is when a hawk draweth anything out of her nest, 



