WRDF. ys 



fly witli screams nt his most distant a])pcaraitce. Long bcto-e 

 I could see the falcon, I Imve seen them witli the utmost signs 

 of terror endeavouring to avoid him ; and, like the peasants of » 

 country before a victorious army, every one of them attemptiiij? 

 to shift for himself. P^ven the young falcons, though their spirit 

 be depressed by captivity, will, when brought out into the field, 

 venture to fly at barnacles and wild geese, till, being soundly 

 brushed and beaten by those strong birds, they learn their error, 

 and desist from meddling with such unwieldly game for the fu- 

 ture. 



To train up the hawk to this kind of obedience, so as to hunt 

 for his master, and bring him the game he shall kill, requires 

 no small degree of skill and assiduity. Numberless treatises 

 have been written upon this subject which are now, with the 

 sport itself, almost utterly forgotten : indeed, except to a few, 

 they seem utterly unintelligible •, for the falconers had a language 

 peculiar to themselves, in which they conversed and wrote, and 

 took a kind of professional pride in using no other. A modem 

 reader, I suppose, would be little edified by one of the instruc- 

 tions, for instance, which we find in Willoughby, when he bids 

 us " draw our falcon out of the mew twenty days befoi'e we en- 

 seam her. If she truss and carry, the remedy is, to cosse her 

 talons, her powse, and petty single." 



But, as it certainly makes a part of natural history, to show 

 how much the nature of birds can be wrought upon by harsh or 

 kind tieatment, I will just take leave to give a short accourt of 

 the manner of training a hawk, divested of those cant words 

 with which men of art have thought proper to obscure their pro 

 Cession. 



In order to train up a falcon, the master begins by clapping 

 straps upon his legs, which are called jpsses, to which there is 

 fastened a ring with the owner's name, by wliich, in case he 

 should be lost, the finder may know where to bring him back. 

 To these also are added little bells, which serve to mark the 

 place where he is, if lost in the chase. He is always carried on 

 the fist, and is obliged to keep without sleeping. If he be stub- 

 born, and attempts to bite, his head is plunged into water. Thus, 

 by hunger, watching, and fatigue, he is constrained to submit tc 

 having his head covered by a hood or cowl, which covers his eyes. 

 This troublesome employment contiiuies often for three days ar;d 



