DISEASES OF HA WKS 387 



quiet on the perch, seem to be specially prone to this com- 

 plaint. 



Inflammation of the lungs is a complaint which hawks oc- 

 casionally acquire, and it seems to be near akin to the 'pantas/ 

 of which ancient writers tell us so much ; the chief symptoms 

 are feverishness, a peculiar shortness of breath, and quick 

 heaving of the body, especially of the lower part or pannel, as 

 each breath is drawn ; the hawk steadily pines away and dies, 

 when her lungs are either found to be in a highly congested state 

 or in some cases are almost altogether gone. We have tried 

 various remedies, but have found none in which we have such 

 confidence as to recommend it to our readers. Latham in his 

 'Faulcons' Lure and Cure' gives the following as a remedy, if ad- 

 ministered in the very earliest stages, and we give it for what 

 it may be worth : ' Take a quarter of a Ib. of the best 

 sweet butter and put it into dammaske rose water and there 

 preserve and keep it close. And as you have need to use it, 

 which must be very often, take some of it forth and with the 

 powder of rue and the powder of saffron and a little brown 

 sugar candie mingled well together make a pellet or two and 

 give every morning to your hawk for a week together early in 

 the morning, and keep her very warm.' Each ingredient in 

 this prescription is one that is usefully administered to various 

 birds, and may be serviceable even in so extreme a case as the 

 pantas. 



Blain is supposed to be peculiar to passage hawks and to 

 be incurable. ' It takes the form of a large watery blister on the 

 pinion joint at the extreme end of the wing ; gradually this 

 stiffens, the feathers become immovable, and the power of the 

 wing so greatly impaired that the hawk is useless. In extreme 

 cases the pinion joint will rot off altogether. The cause is 

 perhaps the sudden inactivity which is enforced upon freshly 

 caught hawks just when they have been using their powers of 

 flight most freely during the migration. We have also noticed 

 that it is most prevalent in very severe winters, and may there- 



1 An eyess was taken with this complaint in the spring of 1892. 



CC 2 



