PRACTICAL FALCONRY. V7 
To return. Your newly-taken hawk will have an opportunity of 
casting, the hood having been removed; and, if he is put on a soft 
lawn, or with plenty of straw round the block, and is not frightened, 
whatever bating there may be when daylight comes won’t do him 
the least harm. I used to be afraid of this, but I have found by 
long experience that moderate bating, without a crop of food, need 
not be feared. Carry the bird the next day, hooding and unhooding, 
offering him after a time the leg of a fowl to pull at. Probably he 
won’t look at it; he will only fly off your glove, and hang by the 
jesses. Don’t hold him too short: have your thumb and finger just 
on the jesse side of the swivel; he will take a little in time ; if he 
won't come up himself, when he hangs put your right hand on his 
breast-and quietly lift him up. If he should absolutely refuse food 
the first day (and you must only feed him on your fist), try him early 
on the second; if he won’t eat then, make him open his mouth in his 
anger, and pop some pieces in, well down, at the end of a strong 
straw, or not too sharp a stick. This is just to keep the stomach 
in action. He will soon come to, and few hawks—eyesses of course 
—will give you so much trouble. Try first to make him feed through 
the hood, the beak-hole being very large; but stop this practice as 
soon as possible. 
An eyess is a nestling hawk, differing from a haggard, which is an 
old wild-caught bird. 
In a few days you will have very much tamed the bird, and perhaps 
have broken him to the hood—a thing, though, often done before the 
bird is tame. Much depends upon the disposition of the bird; and, 
as to hooding at any rate, a great deal on your own adroitness. 
But the aptitude for hooding does not make a falconer, as I need 
hardly say. I can hood indifferently well, but not so well as one 
of our professionals, who engages to hood a wild hawk, he, the 
professional, being blindfold. That is very pretty; but if the 
professional has nothing else to boast of—which he has—a mounte- 
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