PRACTICAL FALCONRY. 5 
bate must not touch anything but the straw or grass, certainly not 
the sides of a shed. If the blocks are at any time placed in a loft, 
holes must of course be made through the boards for the admission 
of the spikes. 
My blocks are formed of two pieces of wood neatly joined, in 
order to make it possible to have a large ring running in a groove 
round the base, on which moves a smaller ring, and to that the leash 
is fastened. But an ordinary staple driven into the side of the 
block will do. 
The goshawk’s bow-perch—upon which a peregrine may be placed 
if necessary—is simply a tough bough or sapling, bent to something 
like half a circle, and having a large ring running on it for the 
leash to be fastened to. A piece of wire should keep it in the form 
of a bow, leaving, however, plenty of length at the points, so that 
they may be made very fast in the ground. Should an accident 
happen, and one end come out, the wire will save the escape of the 
bird. It may be used under a shed, but it then obviously requires 
considerable room. A partition, too, must screen the sight of an 
immediate neighbour from the observation of a goshawk. 
A hawk has a jesse on each leg. Jesses are made in this way : 
Take a narrow strip of moderately stout, but not harsh, leather, 
six or seven inches in length, cut it from a point, till (getting 
broader) at Jess than an inch from the point you have the breadth 
of not half an inch of jesse. Keep that breadth for an inch or more, 
then gradually narrow to less than the third of an inch; but, as you 
get pretty near the other end, widen a little. Why, “that’s a thing 
that no fellow can understand.” Still, I would take leather, a 
knife, and a board and try. At the broader end make a slit not far 
from the point, make another slit an inch from that, and a third 
slit at the other end of the jesse. Grease the jesse. 
- Get someone to hold the bird. Take the end of the jesse that has 
two slits, and, putting it round the hawk’s leg, pass the point 
