FURNITURE AND FITTINGS 47 



For out-door service, blocks are used for the long-winged 

 hawks, and bow-perches for the short-winged. Blocks are of 

 various shapes, as shown in the illustration. The simplest are 

 made of mere chunks of tree or sapling sawn' off level (Fig. 1 1 ), 

 and having a staple of iron or brass driven into the top or at 

 the side, to which to attach the leash. They should be from 

 8 inches to a foot in height for a peregrine or ger, and for all 

 other hawks of such a height that when the hawk is standing 

 on them her tail may just clear the tops of the blades of 

 grass. A high block is not good ; for then the leash, if it is 

 not to catch in the shoulder, must be a long one, and when the 

 hawk bates she will be brought up with a too sudden jerk as 

 the leash tightens. For the smaller falcons — hobbies, merlins, 

 and kestrels — as well as for sakers and lanners, the block 

 should always be larger at the top than at the bottom, so that 

 it may not be fouled on the sides with the mutes (see Figs. 12, 

 14). It is a very good plan to have a groove made round the 

 body of the block, and to have a metal ring fitted round it, so 

 that it will run freely in the groove. This hoop of metal may 

 be looped out into a smaller ring on one side, to which the 

 leash may be tied (see Figs. 13, 14). As the hawk jumps off to 

 one side or the other the ring will run round ; and thus all 

 risk is avoided of the leash getting hitched up or wound round 

 the block. A spike (Fig. 15) is firmly fixed into the middle of 

 the base of the block to hold it fast in the ground. Of course a 

 block which is larger at the base than on the top may be used 

 without a spike, and without any ring or staple in it, if the 

 leash is fastened to a ring-peg (Fig. 16) in the ground. But 

 even if this peg is driven in on the windward side of the 

 block, that is, on the side towards which the hawk is -pretty 

 sure to bate off, the risk of entanglement is not wholly avoided ; 

 and a hawk so attached should not be left alone for long. 

 The top of the block should be covered with cork (Fig. 17), or 

 it may be padded and covered with leather. But in the latter 

 case it must not be left out in the rain. Wood is too hard 

 for hawks to stand on for any length of time, and is apt to give 

 them corns or sore feet. No hawk should be allowed to stand 

 on a wet block. A simple and not a bad plan for making 

 merlins' blocks, is to saw off a chunk from a pole or 

 tree branch, about 2^ in. in diameter and 5 or 6 in. long. 

 Into one end insert a spike, and on to the other nail 

 a 4-in. or 5-in. bung (Fig. 18). A 4-in. metal curtain- 

 ring, measured from outside to outside, can be placed on 

 the ground and the spike driven into the earth in the middle 



