290 REMIXISCEXCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



nailed to its surface and should hang to the ground, so 

 that she may raise herself up by it when she has left 

 the perch or baited off. She is to be fixed to this perch 

 by a short leash of six or eight inches in measure, the 

 swivel of which is to be tied close to the top of the 

 perch. The shortness of the leash, and the presence of 

 the matting by which she can creep up, prevents her 

 injuring herself by passing under it, and by so doing to 

 twist her leash round it. 



As these hawks are carried unhooded, and are not 

 brought to the lure but to the fist, it is evident that a 

 singular degree of obedience must be taught them, which 

 fortunately their nature inclines them to submit to with 

 much more facility than the long winged hawks. The 

 same means are also made use of to make them very 

 docile, by frequently feeding them by the hand, giving 

 them very small quantities at a time, and by constantly 

 carrying them about on the fist, with the precaution of 

 having the jesses wound round the fingers. The absolute 

 necessity of keeping the wild hawk without sleep, and 

 instantly on hand, is always insisted on in the old hawk- 



&c., and every remedy I conld devise, but without effect. They did more 

 harm than good, as he could not cast them, but retained some part : 

 even pebbles I gave. At length I resolved on a kill or cure. I got a 

 piece of wire, with which large pins are made, half a yard long, and 

 made a hook at the end of it. I got three persons to hold the bird : one 

 to keep it on its back, one at the talons, and the third held the bill open 

 and the neck stretched. I put my hook by his beak into the throat as 

 dexterously as I could, trying to catch hold of the ball which occasioned 

 his illness, and which I succeeded in doing, not the first or second time, 

 but at the thii-d attempt. When I had accomplished it I took a live 

 pigeon, pulled off his head, and put the bleeding neck into the throat of 

 the hawk, so that the warm blood ran in his crop ; and every two hours 

 I did the same with live pigeons, because he was so weak he could not 

 swallow meat, and he became an excellent bird," 



