ACCIDENTS AND MALADIES 231 



if necessary. If a feather should have been pulled out, base 

 and all, it is advisable to put some solid grease into the place, 

 to keep it from closing up and preventing the new feather from 

 growing down. 



When only the tip of a wing feather is gone it would of 

 course be only for the sake of appearances that it would be 

 imped. Considering that wild hawks, and some trained ones 

 also, kill quarry while they are moulting, and have four or more 

 of their biggest feathers wanting, or only half-grown, at the 

 same time, it would be a bad hawk which could not fly passably 

 because she was short of an inch square of the sail area she 

 ought to spread. Occasionally, as for instance when you have 

 not long to wait before the moult will begin, you may leave a 

 hawk unimped though she is very ragged. But the worst of 

 allowing any feather to remain with its end off is that the next 

 feathers to it, especially in the tail, are pretty sure to go too. 

 The strain which the tail has to bear is such as it can just resist 

 by the collective strength of all the feathers together ; but when 

 one is unable to take its full share of the resistance, the others 

 are unequal to the pressure, and give way. What difference in 

 a hawk's flying power does the loss of a whole feather or half 

 a feather imply ? It is, of course, quite impossible to say. But 

 arguing from the analogy of pigeons, the tails of which are some- 

 times removed in order to increase their speed, it would seem that 

 in mere straightforward flying the tail is of very small assistance. 

 I once had an eyess jack-merlin sent to me from the nest in a 

 deplorable condition. The tail was clogged at the end with 

 dirt, and so many of the tail feathers were bent and broken that 

 he was at once christened " Tagrag " ; and while he was at hack 

 was regarded as unworthy of much attention. By the time he 

 was ready to enter, his tail, which it had not been thought 

 worth while to mend, was reduced to about half its proper 

 length, more than an inch having been knocked off every one 

 of the feathers. This hawk developed later on into the fastest 

 hawk I ever saw. When he was out on his own account, as he 

 was once for seven days together, he could be distinguished from 

 a wild merlin less by the stumpy tail than by the headlong 

 speed with which he flew, even when not in pursuit of anything. 

 When engaged in a double flight he-would put in about three 

 stoops to two of the other hawk ; and these were not only 

 more quickly made, but were longer, straighter, and more tell- 

 ing. This hawk was an exceptionally good one. He was the 

 brother (though senior by a year) of Queen and Jubilee, which 



