246 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



" If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke, 

 Imp out our drooping country's broken wing." 



(" Richard II.," II. i. 291.) 



This term indicates the replacement of a dam- 

 aged feather, where the shaft remains, by a portion 

 of a whole feather of another bird. The falconers 

 knew each wing and tail feather and collected 

 examples of each for use as required. The old 

 damaged feather was pruned into what we may 

 call a stump, and the substitute feather obliquely 

 cut so as to fit into it. Sir John Sebright, quoted 

 by Harting, tells us in his " Observations on 

 Hawking " that the falconer for the purpose of 

 uniting the old stump with the new feather " is 

 provided with an iron needle . . . and after 

 wetting the needle with salt and water " notice 

 the anticipation of our modern antiseptic methods 

 " thrusts it into the centre of the pith of each 

 part, as truly straight, and as nearly to the same 

 length in each as may be. When this operation 

 has been skilfully performed the junction is so 

 neat that an inexperienced eye would hardly 

 discern the point of union/' 



A cruel habit of sewing the upper and lower 

 eyelid together with a thread to accustom the 

 hawk to the " hood " was termed " seeling/' 



