HAWKING-BIRDS. 
mancers miglit have made nracli of sucli a foundation for prose i 
or yerse. It was tame enough, but of weird -like aspect, having I 
strange angles in its anatomy in unexpected places. It did not I 
stand or walk like its brethren. It was always hungry, and 
ate great quantities of meat, which did not appear to have 
much effect in quenching its eternal hunger, and none at all 
in bringing it from its gaunt ungainly aspect to a respectable 
hawk -like shape. At last it finished its life by dying in spasms. i 
“ The owner dissected it, in order to obtain some clue to its J 
peculiarities ; and on removing the integuments a most singu- j 
lar state of things presented itself. Hardly a single bone in j 
the body of the poor bird had escaped fracture — scarcely a 
joint had escaped dislocation. One of its thigh-bones had 
been broken in five places and the other in four. The spine 
was crooked, and the legs were twisted out of all shape. 
There were more than twenty fractures in the large bones 
alone. It was thought that the bird might have thus suffered ; 
from want of food in sufficient quantity or quality ; but on 
inquiry it was found that it had been brought up with other 
hawks, and fed, like them, on mice and small birds. All its 
companions were perfectly healthy, while it alone was afflicted 
with this singular disease.” 
In some parts of the country the kestrel is such a terrible 
enemy to the professional birdcatcher, pouncing down and 
carrying off his trained call-birds, that it is necessary to 
contrive a suitable trap for taking the rapacious creatures. 
One of the most favourite of kestrel snares is constructed as- 
follows : — A white napkin, to attract the hawk while in the- 
air, is spread upon the ground, and fastened down at the 
corners with little sticks ; in the middle of the cloth a live 
sparrow is placed, fastened by two or three inches of string 
to the ground. Slender twigs are then placed all round the 
napkin, so as to prevent the hawk from attacking the decoy 
from any position but above. Two long and slender willow 
twigs are placed, one at each end of the cloth, so as to form a 
kind of arch over the sparrow, but just high enough to pre- 
vent the decoy-bird from fluttering against it. These twigs 
are placed very lightly in the ground, so that when the 
hawk strikes down at the sparrow, and his wings stick to the 
limed twigs, he will, by his fluttering, carry them away at- 
tached to his wings, thereby at once rendering him help- 
less ; as it is a curious fact, that the strongest birds, when 
once in the sticky power of the twigs, can be captured almost 
254 
