GLOSSARY OF TERMS 251 



harm ; but many passage hawks do not like a noise, and, as a 

 rule, in hawking, as in all other sports, the quieter you are about 

 it the more successful are you likely to be. 



In ancient times the number of technical expressions used 

 in falconry were almost innumerable ; hardly a motion could 

 be made by the hawk, hardly a feather shaken, but a special 

 term was applied. We in modern times have much reduced 

 the number of these terms, and in describing our hawks are 

 content to make use of the ordinary expressions of everyday 

 life ; but in a sport so peculiar there are necessarily many tech- 

 nicalities and many terms which must be used and understood 

 when falconry is the topic. We here append a glossary of 

 terms now used in hawking, and, while we have endeavoured to 

 include all those that are in daily use, we have excluded all that 

 are unnecessary or obsolete. 



GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN HAWKING 



BATE. To flutter off the perch or fist through wildness or from 



temper. 

 BEWITS. The strips of leather by which the bells are fastened to 



the legs. 



BIND. To seize and hold on to quarry in the air. 

 BRAIL. A strip of leather with which one wing of a hawk is 



secured so as to prevent her from moving it. 

 CADGE. A frame of wood with padded edges upon which hawks 



sit when carried to the field. Cadges for travelling are made 



in the form of a box without a lid, and the edges of the box 



are padded as in an ordinary cadge. 

 CALLING OFF. To call the hawk to the lure from the fist of an 



assistant. 

 CARRY. To fly off with the quarry which has been taken, on the 



approach of the falconer : a fault hawks are very liable to con- 

 tract. 



CAST. A couple of hawks. 

 CASTINGS. -Fur or feathers given to a hawk, together with its food, 



to promote digestion. 



CERE. The waxlike skin above or round the beak. 

 CHECK TO. To leave the bird flown at for another. 



