NUMBER OF HAWKS TO KEEP 389 



tobacco water to which is added a little spirit. This mixture 

 should be carefully applied with a camel-hair pencil, and the 

 second application generally effects a cure. 



We do not give directions for setting broken hmbs in hawks, 

 as, though such injuries may be cured in them just as in other 

 animals, it can only be in some very exceptional case that it is 

 worth while to attempt the cure. It is, as a rule, better to 

 destroy the suffering hawk at once in all cases where there is 

 not a fair prospect of effecting a cure, and it is very improbable 

 that a hawk which has met with an accident of such a kind 

 will ever be available for purposes of sport. 



A word of caution, in conclusion, to the beginner in 

 falconry — avoid keefing too many hawks. Out of the twenty- 

 four hours there are not more than six per diem available for 

 such a sport as hawking. Hawks will fly every day, and are, 

 in fact, all the better for being thus worked. Three or four 

 good hawks will, under ordinary circumstances, provide sport 

 for the whole of each day, and will be much improved by 

 being thus freely used. Where more are kept, except in estab- 

 lishments of the largest size, the results usually is that half of 

 the hawks rest in idleness, deteriorating day by day, and 

 occupying time and attention which had better be devoted to 

 their more useful compeers. To obtain three or four really 1 

 good hawks no doubt entails a trial of twice that number, and^r 

 the discarding of the inferior birds. But we strongly ur^l 

 upon the tyro that he should content himself with one or twD | 

 useful steady hawks, gradually testing more and retaining 

 those, and those only, which he finds to be of the first class. 

 He will obtain more sport from a single good tiercel than from 

 six or seven moderate hawks, and will benefit both as to his 

 pocket and his leisure time by the abridgment of his estab- 

 lishment. 



