PRACTICAL FALCONRY. 2 
them out to hack, during which they mature most rapidly. There 
is a good deal of tact required in putting them out at all, and, when 
they are out, they must not remain at liberty very long. 
If I have a reader who literally knows nothing of falconry, will he 
oblige me by waiting for an explanation of the term “hack,” whilst 
I write one or two more sentences about it, and things belonging 
to it? 
I think, then, this, that birds taken from the nest less than a week . 
before they can fly, and reaching you a day or two before flight, are 
taken and received at exactly the right time. There is no danger of 
cramp, and none of screaming (artificially brought on); there is no 
wasting the precious days of the first powers of flight by keeping the 
birds immnured while they are made acquainted with the lures; there 
is no shortening the period of hack, because the birds are so old that 
they can prey for themselves easily when they have been out a 
fortnight. And now for “ hack” itself. 
Hack is the state of liberty in which gyesses are kept for 
some little time before they are trained. It is managed in this 
way : 
When the young birds are received, they are at once (unless 
excessively young) supplied with bells and jesses; and in any case 
they are put on a platform some four feet high, which is erected in 
the corner of an outhouse—an empty:loft or an unused coach-house 
answering the purpose very well. When they thoroughly know the 
lures, and will come down from the platform to them, the door is 
opened, and they are allowed to fly. They will return at feeding times. 
Let us suppose the first eaae, viz., that very young hawks have 
reached you. There is time enough to put on the bells and jesses, 
for hack bells are much larger than flying bells, and would only 
distress such small birds. Put plenty of clean straw on the plat- 
form, which should have sides of two or three inches high, with hori- 
zontal bars touching their tops, on which the, birds will perch ; and 
