384 FALCONRY 



afterwards to deal with those for which we cannot with con- 

 fidence recommend remedies. 



Croaks or kecks is a very common disease : it is caused 

 by a cold, frequently induced by a low state of condition, and 

 answers nearly to an ordinary cough in beasts or human beings. 

 The noise, however, from which the name is derived only 

 appears when the hawk is exerting herself, as by bating or 

 flying. For physic give half a chili, or three or four pepper- 

 corns daily, for two or three days. Keep the hawk constantly 

 pulling at rough food, such as pigeons' backs, fowls' heads, and 

 the like, so that she may constantly be feeding, and yet always 

 exerting herself a little ; finish off each day with a crop of 

 light food, such as rabbit's or tender meat ; every third day give 

 a cropful of * warm blood,' such as a freshly-killed pigeon, 

 and as the hawk gets better give her plenty of flying to the 

 lure. This ailment often hangs about a hawk for a long time, 

 but if she can be kept up in condition and in good heart it 

 will gradually die out. 



Frounce is a canker of the interior of the mouth, and 

 occasionally spreads to the throat, when it is apt to prove fatal. 

 It is caused generally by damp, and sometimes by feeding 

 hawks upon foul meat. The symptoms are, a frothing at the 

 mouth and difficulty in eating, and if the hawk's mouth be 

 opened the whole of the tongue and palate will be seen to be 

 covered with a whitish scale or scab. As much of this scale 

 as can be removed without making the parts bleed should be 

 scraped away with the edge of a quill or a knife, and the 

 exposed part dressed once a day with burnt alum mixed with 

 vinegar. In ordinary cases this will effect a cure in a few days, 

 but if the canker spreads downwards and into the throat it will 

 be found impossible to cure it. Lunar caustic will sometimes 

 prove effective. 



Inflammation of the crop is a serious complaint, and causes 

 the hawk to throw up the contents of her crop in an undigested 

 form shortly after feeding. If not taken in time it will prove 

 fatal. About three grains of powdered Turkey rhubarb must 



