236 ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING 



A trained hawk may cast well and have fairly good mutes, 

 and yet be all the better for a small dose. If she has a dull 

 eye and stands stolidly on her block without taking notice of 

 passing birds ; if she eats without zest, or flies without anima- 

 tion ; if, when standing on the fist, she takes a weak grip with 

 her feet, or puffs out her feathers without cause, or folds her 

 wings loosely together, she may indeed be healthy enough to 

 get a doctor's certificate, but she is not in the sort of fettle to 

 do herself justice in the field. In such case do not, like some 

 falconers who ought to know better, begin calling the hawk 

 names, and neglect her, while bestowing extra attention upon 

 one which exhibits more aptitude. Remember that in the wild 

 state there is no such thing as a bad hawk. All find their living, 

 even in the worst weather, and find it although continually 

 plagued and thwarted by the knowledge that if they go within 

 gunshot of a man they will probably be murdered. Cannot a 

 trained hawk, well housed and regularly fed, and freed from the 

 constant fear of gun and trap, be made as fast and as clever even 

 as the worst of her wild brethren ? Falconers must be a long 

 way behind the professors of other arts and crafts if they can- 

 not make their trained pets at least nearly as good as the wild 

 and untrained. There is perhaps more delight in flying a hawk 

 which is never out of sorts and always naturally ready to do 

 her best. But it is more creditable to the trainer, and a greater 

 test of his skill, if he can impart excellence where he found 

 little sign of it, and in short make a bad hawk fly well. The 

 Indian native falconers — from whom, by the way, we have a lot 

 to learn — habitually fly some of their favourite hawks, such as 

 the saker, under the stimulus of strong drugs ; and there can 

 be no doubt that many hawks of all species are bettered by 

 frequent dosing, just as a Chinaman by opium, and certain 

 literary celebrities by absinthe. In some cases these doses 

 supply more or less effectually the lack of exercise from which 

 a trained hawk suffers, and in other cases possibly they act as 

 an antidote to the feeling of annoyance and discontent arising 

 from captivity and confinement. 



As to the particular remedy to be applied when a bird is 

 thus out of sorts without being absolutely ill, 1 fear the reader 

 must be referred to one of the old text-books, and not alarmed 

 by quotations at length from their well-garnished pages. The 

 mischief proceeds, of course, either from excessive cold or 

 excessive heat in the system, which will require consequently 

 either heating or cooling medicine. For the former purpose, 



