CASTINGS 377 



Sometimes no natural casting can be procured ; in such a case 

 tow dipped in blood or woollen threads form a fairly good] 

 substitute. A hawk should never go more than a week without ' 

 castings, and they are never in such good health as when they 

 are fed daily upon birds and given an abundance of casting (pVJ 

 allowed to take it naturally) at every meal. 



There is yet one recipe for bringing a hawk into good 

 flying order which we have tried ourselves when all others have 

 failed, but with qualified success. It is an Indian method, 

 and it may be here remarked that the Eastern falconers are 

 always prone to the use of drugs in the conditioning of their 

 hawks, more so than European falconers have ever been. In 

 the case of some varieties of falcon, e.g. the education of the 

 sacre to fly the kite, the administration of drugs is an integral 

 part of the training, and the composition of the physic is a 

 secret handed down from generation to generation of falconers. 

 The prescription we refer to is a well-known ' dodge,' and is as 

 follows : Take, say, 4 oz. of sal-ammoniac, boil or melt it into a 

 solid mass in fresh butter in an iron ladle over a fire ; as it cools 

 squeeze over it the juice of a lemon to remove any grease 

 which has not been strained away. Feed the hawk, which is to 

 be doctored, for three days upon well-washed meat, giving a 

 three-quarter crop each day, then leave her absolutely without 

 food for twelve hours. Take of the sal-ammoniac a piece as 

 large as a filbert, wrap it neatly round with cotton-wool, and 

 administer it over hand. In about twenty minutes she will 

 cast the cotton-wool thickly covered with a mass of greasy fat. 

 If this be floated off into hot water, it will be found to consist 

 of the whole of the fatty lining of the stomach, and the quantity 

 is sometimes very remarkable. About two hours after this 

 casting give the hawk some three mouthfuls of warm blood or 

 J^ very fresh m eat. In the evening let her have half a crop of 

 o well-washed meat. The day after she is fit to fv, and may be 

 «*^ fed as usual ; the greater part of her internal fat is gone. 

 ^<? The effect of this removal of the inner lining of the stomach 

 is to induce a condition of ravenous hunger, while the hawk 



