FEATHERS PLUCKED OUT BY THE ROOT
Should anyone, out of enmity to you, break the wing- or tail-feathers
of your hawk, you must match the broken feathers as far as possible
with others, and “imp”[750] them. First “imp” them with a needle;
then, if they break again, imp them by inserting a shaft[751] into
the hollow quills. If they again break off at the root, close to the
flesh, you can do nothing more.
On no account must you pluck out the tail- or flight-feathers by
the root. Flight-feathers plucked out will never grow again; but
tail-feathers, though they will grow again, will be defective in
two points.[752] First, they will be weak and “withered,” and will
probably break: possibly, too, some will not grow at all. Second,
during the moult, the hawk will experience great difficulty in casting
the re-grown feathers, and you may be constrained to pull them out
again, and so on, year by year, your hawk being thus rendered foul and
disfigured for ever.
If, through personal enmity or by some accident from a gazelle or
a crane, it does so happen that a flight-feather gets plucked out,
then:—_Treatment_: take the feather that has been plucked out and at
once replace it in its socket,[753] and bind it firmly with silk to
that primary-covert[754] that impends it. You must foul, with blood,
the portion of the quill that goes into the flesh, and see, too, that
it is pressed home into its exact place.[755] You must know that by
Divine Agency every flight-feather has a short stout feather as a
“supporter,”[756] called by Arabs a “key.”[754]
Do not after this fly the hawk for two or three days, _i.e._, not till
the feather has set; and do not remove the silk binding for forty
days. At the expiration of this period you can, if you like, remove
the silk, but it is not necessary to do so. Fly your hawk regularly
till the moulting season, but remove the silk before you set her down
to moult. She will cast this replanted feather before any other, and
the new one that will take its place will be smaller than its fellow
in the other wing. In the second moult, however, there will be no
difference.
Should the feathers that have been plucked out be lost, or should
several days elapse since the injury occurred, then:—_Treatment_:
put the hawk in a “sock,”[757] and wet the wing near the seat of
injury, so that the down[758] is soaked. Very carefully search out
the spot. The hole will have closed somewhat, and be too small to
admit a full-sized feather; you must, therefore, plant a corresponding
feather of a smaller size. Thus, if it is the second flight-feather
of a female goshawk that is plucked out, you must plant the second
flight-feather of a male; if of a male goshawk, then the corresponding
feather of a female sparrow-hawk; if of a female sparrow-hawk, then
the feather of a male sparrow-hawk, and so on. Well wet the down with
luke-warm water, and place the end of the “artificial” feather in your
mouth to soften it. When soaked, act as before, binding the feather to
the “key,” etc., etc.
The sooner after the accident the artificial feather is planted the
better, but the operation can be carried out with successful results
even three or four months after the accident, that is, any time before
the socket-hole has closed up and the feathers on each side of it have
fallen inwards and “blinded” it.[759] This operation was invented by
your humble servant, the writer.
Now the flight-feather of a hawk is to be compared to the tooth of
a man. If, owing to the chucking of a horse’s head, or to a fall, or
to other accident, a tooth gets knocked out of the head of a youth of
ten or twenty years, if the tooth be at once replaced in its socket
and bound to the teeth on each side of it, it will certainly take root
again, though it will remain somewhat weaker than its neighbours; and
will, on the approach of old age, when the powers decay and the teeth
loosen, be the first to come away. Should, however, the tooth of that
youth not be replaced, the teeth on either side will fall together
inwards and so obliterate the gap that none can tell that there is a
tooth missing. Hence the sooner you replace a plucked out feather the
better.
FOOTNOTES:
[750] _Payvand kardan_, “‘to imp’ a broken feather; to graft a tree.”
[751] _Lūla-payvand_: I conclude this is the author’s meaning.
[752] On a first of October I saw a young passage-saker minus six
of its tail-feathers: the clumsy hawk-catcher, in his eagerness,
had stepped on the tail. Forty days later these tail-feathers were
one-fourth part grown and the falcon was also coming well to the lure.
In _Falconry in the British Isles_, by Freeman and Salvin, mention is
made of a merlin’s tail-feather, which had dropped out, growing again.
[753] The flight-feather of a female peregrine penetrates the flesh
for the distance of more than 1¼ inches.
[754] _Miftāḥ_, Ar., “a key, or any instrument that opens a door.”
[755] The hole in the flesh closes up and is very difficult to find.
[756] _Pas-band_; in chess, “a piece that guards another.”
[757] _Vide_ “to mail,” page 59, note 247.
[758] _Narm-parhā_, “down.”
[759] In _Forty-Five Years of Sport_, by J. H. Corballis, 1891, the
author says that if a wing- or tail-feather be accidentally pulled
out, the hole should at once be plugged with cotton-wool dipped in
grease or honey to keep it open, and that if the plug be kept in its
place for a few days a new feather will probably make its appearance.
“If a feather should be plucked 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.”—_The Art and Practice
of Falconry_, by E. B. Mitchell, page 161. Tail-feathers will grow
again, but most falconers are agreed that flight-feathers plucked out
do not grow again. I once tried the operation mentioned by our Persian
author, but no new feathers grew.