188 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



to satisfy her hunger. For tiercels and all hawks of about the 

 same size, rabbits' or leverets' feet, with the lower part of the 

 leg, make capital tirings. So do the necks of fowls and ducks, 

 which a falconer should always cause to be reserved for him 

 when any poultry is slain for the kitchen. The foot of an old 

 hare is not too tough for a strong falcon. " The small hawks will 

 generally be kept employed for a good many minutes by the 

 two outer joints of a duck's or old pigeon's wing. These tirings 

 should be given whenever a hawk is short of exercise, or fidgety 

 on the block or perch. Their effect is not only to strengthen 

 all the muscles — for it is quite hard work picking the scanty 

 scraps of food off the bones and skin amongst which they lie hid 

 — but also to engross the attention of the hawk, which would 

 otherwise very possibly be pining more or less sadly for freedom, 

 and often jumping off in the vain endeavour to attain to that 

 blessing. The frequent picking of bones also keeps a hawk's 

 beak from growing down at the point to an unnatural length. 

 A man who tells you that he often has to cope his hawk stands 

 detected of being in the habit of not giving her sufficient tirings. 

 Another most valuable use of these tough morsels has been 

 already referred to. It is discovered during the first period of 

 manning the hawk, when the necessary job of carrying is found 

 to be ten times more agreeable and better performed if, while 

 the pupil has perforce to stand on the fist, she has some induce- 

 ment to do so in the shape of a fowl's " drumstick " or the wing 

 of a goose, off which almost all the meat has already been picked. 

 No better advice is given by Mr. Freeman — though every one of 

 his counsels is admirable — than to prolong as much as possible 

 the meals which a half-trained hawk takes on the fist. Often 

 the delicacy on which you are regaling her will be tender in one 

 part and tough in another. For instance, it may be the full- 

 fleshed leg of some fowl, off which the meat can easily be torn, 

 with a part of the back, consisting chiefly of skin and bone. If 

 your rather shy pupil takes kindly to the least manageable part 

 of her appointed dinner, let her pick at it, and laboriously polish 

 with many applications of her beak the ill-covered bones of the 

 back, stroking her from time to time with a pencil or with the 

 right hand. Possibly she will not yet stand such acts of fami- 

 liarity, but bate off. When she is on the fist again, let her recom- 

 mence operations without taking any liberties with her. Reserve 

 your attentions with the stick for the time when she will be busy 

 discussing the more succulent morsels in the menu, and when 

 she is more likely to submit, without much protest, to the indig- 



