Home Life
Probably the commonest fault in young falconers of the modern school
is that of keeping too many hawks. Almost every writer on the subject
has warned them over and over again against this rage for being
"over-hawked"; and yet it is still the cause of endless failures,
disappointments, and disasters. "Don't you know, if I lose one I like
to have another to fall back upon." Such is the excuse, and a very
bad one it is. If a beginner can manage to keep one hawk of any kind
in flying order he may consider himself exceptionally clever; and the
sole charge of a cast of hawks is quite as much as any amateur ought
to undertake, unless he is blessed with a great deal more leisure
time than is usually the case. An experienced professional falconer,
with a boy to help him, and with nothing else to occupy his time, may
manage an establishment of three short-winged hawks, or about five
long-winged, or one of the former and three of the latter, short-winged
hawks, when in flying condition, requiring about twice as much
attention as their nobler cousins. But if it is desired to keep up a
larger establishment, there should be, counting in the head falconer,
one man, or at least one boy, to every two hawks.
A falconer who attends properly to his charges will find that they
monopolise a very large portion of every day--at anyrate from the
time when the eyesses arrive, in early summer, to the end of the
rook-hawking season in spring. His duties may be divided into those
which we may call normal or permanent, and which relate to the hawks
which are already in flying order, and only require to be flown and
kept in working condition, and exceptional or special duties, such
as the hacking of eyesses, and the manning and reclaiming of hawks
which are newly caught, newly taken up, or newly removed from the
moulting-place. Thus, as in other professions, there are times of
extra pressure, when every hour in a long day has its full complement
of busy work, and times of comparative rest, when the labour is a good
deal lighter. But at all times the falconer, if he is to excel, must be
possessed of certain qualifications, either innate in him or carefully
acquired, which will enable him to become a favourite amongst his
winged pupils and servants.
Among such qualities the foremost is prudence. A moment of
carelessness, or even inattention, may almost every day entail the loss
of a valuable hawk. A knot insecurely fastened, a door inadvertently
left open, a leash or jess that has become unsound,--all these are
examples of small imprudences, some one of which many a falconer will
bitterly remember to have been the cause of a catastrophe. Cleanliness
and tidiness are virtues none the less desirable in a professional
falconer because they were, and still are, a little rare. It is not so
easy a matter as it may at first be supposed to keep a hawk-house clean
and neat; and the very first aspect of many such places speaks volumes
for the character of the owner or his servants. The person who has to
manage hawks should be gentle in all his dealings with them. He should
have the touch of an organist rather than of a pianist; the hands of
a sculptor rather than of a wrestler or quoit-player. Any hurried or
sudden movement is offensive and alarming to hawks; and rough treatment
of any kind disgusts and makes enemies of them. Patience and a good
temper are quite as necessary to a falconer as to an angler--probably
more so, as the difficulties and injustices with which the falconer
is confronted under modern conditions exceed those which are met with
in any other kind of sport. He must be a good judge of the characters
of animals, and of their moods and fancies, for there is as much
difference in the dispositions of hawks as of human beings, and no
two of them, except by a rare accident, can be treated successfully
in exactly the same way. His sight and hearing must be good, for
much depends upon his ability to keep a long flight in view, and to
distinguish the sound of a hawk's bell in a high wind, amidst the
rustle of leaves and grass, the murmur of a stream, or the pattering of
rain.
In the golden age of falconry great weight was attached to the
possession of good lungs. The "falconer's voice," for which Juliet
fondly wished, was used not only to lure the tassel-gentle back again,
but to encourage him in his efforts, and to cheer his successful or
brilliant strokes. A modern trainer is not so demonstrative. We
have--wrongly, I think--almost abandoned the use of calls and cheers
to animate our winged friends in the air. But even now a loud voice
is a merit in a falconer, if only as enabling him from afar to warn
the field and any chance intruders not to meddle with a flight or run
in to a hawk that has killed. Those few who still make a practice of
"giving their voice" to their hawks are, I think, well repaid for
their trouble. For no one can doubt how attentive hawks are to sounds,
especially of the human voice, or how thoroughly they become convinced,
when well handled, that they and their followers on foot or horseback,
and the dogs, when there are any, are all friends and comrades engaged,
each in his different way, in the same campaign against the same quarry.
As the huntsman in his kennels, and the trainer in his stables, so
the good falconer should take a pride in his mews, or in the place,
whatever he calls it, where his hawks are lodged. We have abandoned
for the most part the old name of mews--long ago degraded to a new
signification--and with it the fashion of building proper quarters
for the accommodation of our feathered friends. The modern hawk-house
is often a poor substitute for the substantial buildings which our
ancestors called mews. Nowadays almost any outhouse seems to be thought
good enough for the purpose; and the trained hawks of several amateurs
who are justly reputed good falconers are housed in what are little
more than shanties, barely able to keep out the rain and wind, and
not at all proof against that insidious enemy, the damp. There can be
no doubt that the excessive prevalence in our times of the horrible
disorder called "croaks" is largely due to the want of care with which
our hawks are housed in winter.
A hawk-house should have solid walls, and a floor well raised above
the ground, so as to be impervious to damp. It should have a loft or
room above it, which will help to save it from extreme variations of
temperature by day and by night. In such a place all hawks, except
merlins and those which have come from any hot climate, may be kept
through all ordinary weathers, care being taken, of course, that the
ventilation is sufficient, but in winter not excessive. In times of
severe frost or excessive damp a very moderate amount of artificial
heat should be introduced. A very good arrangement, when it can be
adopted, is for the back wall of the hawk-house to be also the back
wall on the other side of a warm conservatory or well-heated room.
In such cases it is unnecessary, unless in exceptional winters, to
have any heating apparatus in the hawk-house itself. Merlins and
the tropical hawks, such as shaheens, barbarys, and also the desert
falcons, should, in cold or damp weather at least, be placed in a room
which is over a very well-warmed apartment, and has the flue of one
chimney at least running along one of its sides. A room immediately
above a kitchen is pretty safe in all weathers for all hawks if the
fire is kept up all night, but not otherwise. Where the room is
unavoidably isolated, there must be a stove or some heating apparatus;
but the heat thrown out must be very moderate indeed, or the hawks
when taken out for weathering, or even when left stoveless by day, are
nearly sure to catch cold. Changes of temperature in our islands are
sudden and severe enough when due to natural causes only, but if they
are produced by artificial means no hawk can be expected to endure
them with impunity, and least of all gers, merlins, and the denizens
of the sunny south. The hardiest hawks are peregrines and hobbies,
but these, too, must be given a fair chance, even if it entail upon
their owner some inconvenience and expense. Whenever the weather is
very wet or damp, with penetrating fogs, opportunity should be taken,
when the hawks are all out on their blocks or being carried, to warm
the hawk-house thoroughly by artificial means, and purge it of all
suspicion of damp.
Adjoining the hawks' apartment should be another small room, where
lures and spare "furniture" can be kept. Meat and food of all kinds
should be rigorously excluded from the first-mentioned room, but may
be kept, if it is quite fresh, on an emergency in the other, where
blocks and bow-perches when taken in out of the rain can be deposited.
On the walls in either room may be hung on small pegs or nails the
hoods for each kind of hawk; but it is well to mark clearly above each
peg a description of the sort of hood which is intended to be there
hung, so that in a case of hurry one may not be mistaken for another,
and a tiercel's hood crammed on to a falcon, or a female hobby's be
found wobbling about on the head of a jack-merlin. Every falconer
should have in his cupboard a tin box containing a supply of imping
needles suitable for the hawks which he keeps, and some spare feathers
ready for imping. The same box will hold other small paraphernalia and
odds-and-ends, such as waxed thread, pincers for "coping" or blunting
the beak and talons, tweezers for putting on jesses, punches for
making holes in leashes, scissors, files, and a scrap of thin leather
for making jesses and bewits. Or there may be a compartment where
ready-made jesses, bells, swivels, and spare leashes are stored. The
lures, well cleansed from all food that has been attached to them, and
the hawking gloves, can have their proper place in the side-room.
If the building inhabited by the hawks is large, the upper part may be
used as a loft wherein to moult them. If there are hawks of different
kinds to be moulted, it must be divided into separate compartments,
so that no two of very different size may be together. And each
individual goshawk must have a room for itself. It would not be safe
to turn falcons and tiercels loose together, nor a female with a male
sparrow-hawk. Merlins and jacks may be left together, and in the same
place with male hobbies; and probably peregrine tiercels with female
shaheens, lanners with lannerets, and perhaps barbarys. But it is not
very wise to risk the chumming together of any dissimilar hawks at a
time when they are all kept in specially high condition, with no work
to do, and ready for the mischief which Dr. Watts assures us is a
natural concomitant of idleness. Of course if there is a living-room
above the hawks, or above the furniture-room, it may serve most
conveniently for a falconer's or under-falconer's bedroom, enabling him
to be at hand by night as well as day in case there should be anything
wrong, such as a hawk hanging by her jesses from the perch, or a
scuffle amongst hawks moulting in the same compartment.
At six o'clock in summer, and as soon as it is light in winter, the
falconer should be in the hawks' room. If newly-caught hawks are
there, they will be in a compartment from which all daylight has been
excluded. Taking them one by one on the fist, he will put on their
hoods, and then, lighting a candle, or admitting enough light, he
will search for their castings under the screen-perch. If any one of
them which has had castings the day before should not have yet cast,
he must either put her back on the perch in the dark, or else, if
she is far enough advanced in training for this, hand her over to an
under-falconer to be carried till she has performed that operation.
Under the place occupied by each hawk the pellet should be looked for
and examined before it is thrown away with the sweepings of soiled
sawdust collected under the perches. As the falconer ascertains that
each hawk has cast up a healthy pellet, well-shaped and free from oily
mucus, he will be doing no harm if he presents her with a mouthful or
two of food, by way of a morning salutation, and just to show that
there is no ill-will.
Then if it is a fine morning, there will probably be a hawk or two
which may with advantage be pegged out, either in the sunshine, if
she is fond of it, or under the cool shade of a tree. At anyrate,
there will be a hawk which will be none the worse for half an hour's
carrying; and if there are merlins, it will be none too early to fly
them to the lure. Every falconer, each time he rises, ought to take
note of the weather, marking especially the direction and strength of
the wind, and should do his best to forecast how the day will turn
out. If he sees reason to expect a stormy afternoon, he will prepare
to fly the hawks as early as he can; whereas, if it is already blowing
or raining hard, he may think it best to provide for the possibility
of a late start, taking the chance of an improvement in the weather
at midday, or later. He should decide betimes which hawks are certain
not to be taken out to the field, and make sure that their allowance
of food is ready to be given them early in the day. Such hawks may
generally be put out early in the morning, and provided with tirings,
at which they may pull away contentedly on their blocks till it is time
either to fly them to the lure, or to give them their ration on the
fist. In the game-hawking season there will be a consultation with the
keeper as to the country to be visited and the dogs to be taken out;
and the falconer, having an eye to the direction of the wind, will plan
out provisionally the sort of tactics which it will be best to adopt
in beating the ground. Beaters and markers should also be secured, and
directed as to the order of the day's proceedings, whether the business
in hand is grouse-hawking, lark-hawking, or any other form of sport for
which these attendants are required.
After breakfast, on sunshiny days, there will generally be candidates
for the bath. Fresh water must be brought; and in very cold weather
a cup or two of hot water may be added, to take off the chill. Each
hawk, after bathing, should have an hour at least to dry and air
herself in the sun and wind. In emergencies, on cloudy days, the old
falconers used to dry their hawks after bathing by holding them with
their backs to a fire. Hawks do not usually care to take a bath much
before eleven o'clock; and they should not be indulged with one after
half-past twelve. Those which have bathed will, of course, not be ready
to fly till well on in the afternoon, especially as they will have had
a very light feed in the early morning, as it is not good to let a
hawk bathe on a quite empty stomach. The falconer will generally like
to be present while the hawks bathe, so that he will not be ready to
start for the field, even with those that have not bathed, much before
noon. This hour, moreover, is full early for peregrines and most of the
larger hawks, which are apt to be slack in the pursuit of their quarry
when they have, or at least think they have, the best part of the day
before them in which to provide themselves with their one daily solid
meal.
Hawks which are not yet thoroughly accustomed to the hood should be
hooded up with care, so as to avoid any trial of their temper just as
they are about to be called upon to do their best. Hawks, of course,
ought always to be good at the hood; but some manifest an obstinate
repugnance to it, as for instance Vesta, the very excellent game-falcon
trained for the Old Hawking Club. The duties of the falconer in the
field are referred to at length in the next chapter. As soon as he has
returned--which will usually not be much, if at all, before dark--he
must be satisfied that each hawk has had the full allowance of food
which he had decided to be good for her, that her beak and talons are
fairly clean, her feathers in good order, and her swivel and leash
properly attached. Then each will be put in her accustomed place on the
screen-perch, the leash being securely tied round the perch itself, as
described in Chapter III., and the hood, if she is hooded, removed and
hung up.
As for the hawks, if any, which, not being destined for the field,
have been left at home, either at blocks on the lawn, or indoors,
some person will have been left to shift their blocks as they become
exposed to the sun, to carry them for a specified time, and perhaps
to fly some of them to the lure. Every trained hawk, unless she is
put down to moult, or is being flown at quarry, should be exercised
daily to the lure or the fist--merlins twice, and all others once. The
methods of giving exercise have been already described; but it must
be remembered that when once a hawk has been entered the more real
flying in the field she gets the better. Otherwise you are between
the horns of a dilemma. If you give no exercise the hawk grows heavy,
stale, and lazy. If you fly her too much to the lure she may grow too
fond of it, and less keen at wild quarry. Good practical falconers
are thus rather averse to a too free use of the lure with peregrines
and lanners. On the other hand, I have found that merlins cannot well
have too much stooping at the lure. Rook-hawks, and others which are
never expected to wait on at a height, may often be made to do a large
amount of pretty fast flying when stooping at the dead lure. This sort
of practice is of course not to be encouraged in the case of game-hawks
or duck-hawks, as tending to lower their pitch, which it is the chief
desire of the falconer to keep as high as possible. But long-winged
hawks, even in the mere act of waiting on, especially in a strong wind,
get a good breather and a good stretching of their wings, if they are
always allowed to be uncertain in their own minds whether in the end it
will be a partridge or a pigeon that they will have to come down for,
or merely the dead lure.
As for the short-winged hawks, and for such others as will not keep
on the wing willingly without going to perch, they must be exercised
chiefly by the device known as calling off. The most effective plan
is that mentioned in Chapter VI., where two men go out, and, standing
at a distance from one another, alternately bring the hawk across the
intervening space by showing the lure or the outstretched fist. If two
men are not available the hawk may be deposited on a railing, gate, or
post, and the falconer may walk away, hiding his hands, and when he is
as far off as he likes, or as the hawk will allow him to go, may call
her and reward her with a few morsels, and then put her down again for
the operation to be repeated. A trained hawk will often follow the
falconer about for a long time, as he walks along, waiting a while in
expectation of being called, and, if disappointed, flitting to a nearer
resting-place, or coming right up to him on the chance that his hand
will be held out; and if it is not, betaking herself to a neighbouring
tree or other convenient place. Such excursions as these, in a park or
on the downs, with a favourite hawk always in sight, either in the air
or on a conspicuous perch of her own choosing, afford an opportunity
of indulging her with the best possible sort of weathering. It is the
nearest approach which can safely be made to giving trained hawks their
liberty.
It is a common thing with writers on hawking to recommend their
readers, when a trained hawk is out of sorts, to put her on a pair of
hack-bells, and turn her out to hack for a while. I desire to speak
with all respect of a practice which has doubtless been often attempted
with success; but I am compelled to say that my own experience is
altogether unfavourable to any such experiment. Attempts that I have
known made to keep trained hawks at hack have not only failed, but
have over and over again entailed the loss of the bird operated upon,
sometimes for a time, and sometimes permanently. A strong and clever
hawk, even if she is a bit unwell, and even if she is weighted heavily,
will manage to kill something, if she has a real mind to it; and even
if she does not, her wanderings may lead her first out of sight, and
then into some neighbouring field or place, where a stray gunner may
make an end of her. I am not able to advise beginners to turn their
hawks loose for any longer time than they themselves or some agent can
be near at hand, unless it be in the case of a kestrel or hobby, or
other hawk which has never killed wild birds regularly in fair flight.
No ordinary bad weather should deter a falconer from taking his
long-winged hawks out to exercise. Rain, unless it is very heavy, will
do a hawk no harm during the short time she is flying to the lure or
being called off. Even if the rain is heavy, an umbrella can be held
over the hawk as she is carried to the exercise-ground and back. Wind
must be very high indeed before the trainer should hesitate to fly
his hawks at exercise. When they are to be merely called off, they
will, when sharp-set, if in good condition, face half a gale of wind.
But the two men should, in this case, post themselves rather across
wind, and not one exactly down-wind of the other; otherwise the hawk
of the up-wind man will have her head always turned directly away from
the other, and moreover, if she comes fast towards the latter, may be
carried so far past him that she will not take the trouble to fetch
up again, and struggle up-wind to a lure of which she has once been
disappointed. A game-hawk, especially if it is a passager, should not
be kept waiting on very long on a boisterous day. Should she, while in
the air, catch sight of a wood-pigeon or house-pigeon down-wind, and
give chase, she may be out of sight in a moment, and, if the quarry
takes the air, may go miles before you can run or ride five hundred
yards. The best hawks rather enjoy flying in a very high wind, and
seem to take an obvious pride in exerting their mastery over it. Their
stoops at the lure in such weather are often exceptionally fine; and
the tremendous pace at which the wind enables them to come down,
evidently affords them much inward satisfaction.
In hot and sunny weather some caution is advisable in flying hawks to
the lure, as well as in the field. For when in high condition, even
if they are hungry, they are sometimes disposed to go soaring, and,
as it were, forgetting all about mundane affairs, disappear in airy
circles down-wind. Eyesses will, it is true, generally come back when
they are tired of soaring. They are reminded, sooner or later, by an
internal feeling that there is such a thing as a garnished lure in
the foreground. But suppose a passage peregrine, after stretching
her wings for five minutes at a height of a thousand feet, to catch
sight of a wood-pigeon crossing the open down. It would be almost too
much to expect that she should resist the temptation. In the cool
of the day, morning and evening, hawks very seldom soar if they are
sharp-set, and have had the chance of a bath most fine days. It is from
nine to four o'clock in summer that there is the most risk of it; and
hobbies, which are greatly addicted to the habit, should not be flown
during these hours in fine weather, unless the owner is prepared to
wait twenty minutes, or even longer, for my lord or my lady to finish
airing herself in the sky. Very special care must be taken of all
hawks during the migration season--that is, for some weeks after the
latter part of September and the beginning of April. At the former
period, indeed, it is barely safe to let hobbies wait on at all; and
the steadiest peregrines and merlins are apt to feel more or less
strongly the restlessness born of migratory instincts. Many favourite
hawks which seemed a few days ago to be as safe as tame cats, have
been known at migrating time to develop quite suddenly an ungovernable
wish to travel, and have cleared for foreign parts when they had an
opportunity, without a moment's warning or a word of leave-taking.
Each hawk, after flying to the lure, will be immediately fed up,
usually on the way back to the hawk-house or the lawn. As a rule, the
earlier a hawk can be fed up the better, for she will be the sooner
ready for the field on the next day. Moreover, she will fly better,
probably, to the lure if she is aware that that ordeal is often the
precursor of a solid meal. The rather common practice of feeding all
the hawks at about the same hour--generally late in the day--has
nothing that I ever heard of to recommend it. How can a hawk which
habitually dines at six o'clock or later be expected to be keen or to
fly well when thrown off at her quarry at three or four o'clock? If
a peregrine, when it has been finally decided not to fly her in the
field that day, is fed at about eleven o'clock, she will be fit to fly
on the morrow at any time after noon. The falconer should note in what
order his hawks are fed, so that on the next day, unless any special
circumstances prevent it, those which have been fasting the longest
should be flown the first.
No hawk, after being fed up, should be disturbed, frightened, or shaken
about. If the return journey from the field or exercise-ground is long,
and the hawk inclined to bate off the fist, she should be hooded just
before or after she has finished her meal; and on returning home she
should be put in a quiet place--either on a block where nothing can
interfere with her, or on the screen-perch; and if given to bating off,
she should remain hooded, or else in a darkened room, till nightfall.
No hawk should be allowed ever to finish her meal within sight of
another that is still hungry, or to be in a place where she can see a
lure or any sort of food without being able to get at it. At no time
should a hawk be pegged out in a position where she is exposed to a
strong wind, or to a hot sun, except just before and for a while after
her bath. Never should food be dragged or pulled away forcibly from a
hawk, leaving her hungry on the fist or perch with nothing to eat. The
falconer must play the part of a friend, and of a generous friend, not
of a niggardly and tyrannical master, who makes use of his superior
strength to rob his servant of the good things which she expected to
enjoy.
In summer, when the weather is fine and the ground tolerably dry,
peregrines, hobbies, and some of the hardiest of the big hawks may be
left all night at their blocks on the grass. But the advantages, if
any, resulting from such a plan are, I think, more than questionable.
It is argued, of course, that wild hawks sleep in the open air, and
therefore why not trained ones? But the wild hawk chooses his or her
resting-place--almost always a tall tree or rock--far out of reach
of the dews and mists which belong to the grass and the lower air.
If the wild hawk gets wet, or feels cold at midnight, she has only
the elements or herself to blame. If the trained hawk suffers, will
she not blame the man who tied her down in a position where she could
not escape from these discomforts? A perfectly clean and well-aired
hawk-house is, to my mind, as good a place for hawks to sleep in as the
finest lawn on the fairest night of the year. What good does a hawk get
from bating at the block on to the wet grass from 3 or 4 a.m. till the
falconer appears? If wild hawks did this, instead of keeping aloft in
the clear air, would they not be likely sometimes to get the croaks?
I have reserved till as late a place as this the question of dieting,
the most difficult, if not the most important, part of the falconer's
art. Condition in a trained hawk, as in a trained horse or hound, is
the most essential requisite for really great success. Without it the
very best hawk will make but a poor show; and with it even a naturally
slow hawk can be flown with pleasure and credit. Condition must always
depend chiefly upon two things, exercise and dieting. Now, as regards
exercise, it is impossible for a falconer to err on the side of excess.
Wild hawks in their airy circlings, and in pursuit of their daily
subsistence, traverse an almost incredible distance in the course of a
year; probably fifty times as many miles as the most active of trained
hawks can be expected to travel in the same period. Let the trainer,
therefore, make it a simple rule to give his charges as much exercise
as he can--not all at racing pace, of course, but in using their wings.
He need not be afraid of overdoing the thing, as long as he leaves off
when the hawk has made too violent an exertion in an actual flight at
quarry. I have seen a hobby, waiting on in a high wind, refuse to come
down to the lure, though quite sharp-set, and, for the mere pleasure of
flying, remain on the wing for twenty-five minutes. The distance flown
through the air in the time--counting only that in which his head was
to the wind--amounted to a great many miles; and so far was he from
being tired at any time, that he would stoop at and hit the lure, and
yet refuse to hold it, and go up again to the soar. Few hawks will
do this willingly; they must often be induced by some device of the
trainer to keep on the wing; and it is impossible to fly such hawks too
much.
With respect to food, the matter is altogether different. It is just
as easy to overfeed a hawk as to underfeed her. But what trainer can
ever be sure that he has always exactly hit off the golden mean?
Gers, peregrines, and all the hawks which resemble the peregrine,
desert-hawks, hobbies, eagles, goshawks, and female sparrow-hawks,
are fed, as a rule, once a day--peregrines well; eagles, goshawks,
and the desert-hawks more sparingly. Merlins of both sexes and male
sparrow-hawks twice; but lightly on one at least of the two occasions.
Raw beef is generally the staple food of the big hawks; but it should
not be tough, and should be often varied by a rather lighter diet of
bullock's heart, rabbit, fowl, or pigeon. Merlins and sparrow-hawks
should be fed chiefly on small birds, and in default of these on
sheep's heart, rabbit, young fowls, or exceedingly tender mutton or
beef. This sort of diet will also be good for hobbies and kestrels; but
it is not necessary to be so nice with them, and they can be regaled
with coarser food, as long as it is not tough. But they must also have
a freshly-killed small bird occasionally. Goshawks will thrive upon
rats, weasels, squirrels, rooks, and, in short, almost any kind of
bird or animal, except water-hens, which are indigestible and apt to
bring them out of yarak. But a goshawk in good flying order should
not be kept for long upon coarse food, but indulged now and then at
least with viands of the best quality. Mice are capital food, not only
for kestrels and hobbies, but for merlins and sparrow-hawks, and may
be given whole to any kind of hawk by way of castings. Eagles are not
particular as to diet; but they should have plenty of tirings, and
their meat will be none the worse for being a bit tough.
Eagles and all short-winged hawks should have a gorge, that is to say,
as much as they choose to eat, about three times in a fortnight, and
on the following day should be very sparingly fed. Eagles, indeed, and
some female goshawks need not be fed at all, if they are to be flown
at wild quarry on the second day after their full meal. But none of
the smaller hawks will stand anything approaching to starvation; and
to leave a male sparrow-hawk or merlin without food for twenty-four
hours would probably do him a permanent injury, or at all events ruin
his chance of doing himself any justice in the field for a long time to
come. In the case of these, and indeed all the long-winged hawks, when
in constant exercise at wild quarry, I am not quite sure that any good
is done by giving any gorges at all. I never do so with merlins in the
lark season; and yet I have killed with one of them over thirty larks
in succession without a miss. Granting that in their wild state all
hawks occasionally gorge themselves, it must be remembered that trained
hawks are not in a wild state. The analogy is not a just or true one,
any more than it would be to argue from the habits of Red Indians to
those expedient for a white man in training. However, there can be no
great harm, even if there is no great advantage, in giving a gorge to
a peregrine once a week. It is a practice consecrated by old tradition
and precept: and it is not for us degenerate modern amateurs to lightly
discard the maxims of the age of chivalry.
In saying that peregrines and other big hawks are fed once a day, it is
not meant that they should never taste a morsel of food except their
one solid meal. Small tit-bits will be forthcoming at odd times, as
for instance in the early morning, when they are moved from the perch
to the block, or taken to bathe, or to be carried. They will pick a
little from the tirings at which they are almost every day set to work.
There is no need to be stingy with these odds-and-ends; indeed, the old
falconers would very often give their falcons quite a small meal when
they hooded up for the field, or a little before. One ancient writer
declares that a falcon will eat the wing of a fowl, and two hours
afterwards be quite fit to fly. Another recommends his readers always
to feed eyess peregrines twice a day, but of course moderately. The
exact amount of food which it is proper to give to each hawk cannot
be specified even very approximately. For amongst the same class of
hawks, nay, amongst hawks which actually came from the same nest, will
be found individuals with quite different sorts of appetites. One of
them will grow too thin upon rations that make her sister, or even
her brother, too fat. Nevertheless, taking the average of a number of
hawks of the same species, it is possible to arrive at a rough estimate
of what is usually required. The allowance always prescribed for a
peregrine falcon is one-third of a pound of beef. Tiercels, therefore,
will require about a quarter of a pound; and other English hawks must
be provided for on about the same scale, _i.e._ the amount of food, if
very solid, should weigh nearly one-seventh of the total weight of the
bird fed. The desert-hawks, however, are much smaller feeders. A saker,
for instance, looks about as large as a gerfalcon. But it was computed
that a trained ger would eat three times as much as a saker. The power
of fasting of these hawks is naturally very great; and they should
have great gorges, with intervals of very spare feeding. On the other
hand, the small hawks eat a great deal more in proportion to their size
than the large ones. A whole skylark, of average dimensions, given
freshly killed, with all the blood warm in it, is not quite enough for
a merlin's daily ration, but would be about right for most jacks. The
ladies, when doing hard work, require about four larks in three days.
A starling or blackbird is about the right daily meal for a female
hobby, but rather too little for a female sparrow-hawk, and decidedly
too much for a "musket" or "robin." A sparrow without its feathers
weighs an ounce, as nearly as may be; and two whole sparrows a day is
a very ample allowance for a merlin, even when flying both morning
and evening. Probably this would be about the fair quantity to keep a
female hobby in good condition. A sparrow and a half would be about
sufficient for a jack, a robin, or a musket. An ounce of beef is of
course a heavier meal than an ounce of sparrow, but it may be doubted
whether it will give a small hawk more strength or courage, though it
will sustain him longer.
It is needless to say that the apportionment of food to each individual
hawk becomes a more difficult matter in proportion as the hawk is
smaller. A mistake of an ounce, one way or the other, is no great
matter in the case of a ger or a falcon, but give a jack-merlin an
ounce too much or an ounce too little, and you may very soon find
out your mistake in a most practical way. Sometimes a jack will
eat more--and need more--than his own sisters or any merlin in the
establishment. Sometimes, but more rarely, a single merlin will want
nearly as much as two jacks. Tiercel peregrines, barbarys, and others,
sometimes, but rarely, require almost as much as a falcon. A hawk which
has throughout her life never known what it is to be thin can generally
be kept in high condition on less food than one which has once been
below par. Fortunate is the man who has been able to train his hawk
without ever putting her on short commons, and has always been able,
by skill or luck, or both combined, to fly her just at the time when
she was keen enough and yet not over-hungry. Such hawks have the best
chance of turning out well; and among them may probably be numbered
many of those whose names are glorious in the annals of the sport.
A hawk's condition may be tested to a certain limited extent by passing
a finger down her breast-bone, and by feeling the broad pectoral
muscles on each side of the breast between the forefinger and thumb.
Some indications may also be got by gently pinching the muscles of the
leg, to ascertain whether they are full and hard. But these are very
rough tokens to judge from. One hawk will fly her best when almost as
fat as a wild one, and when the sternum is hardly more prominent than
it is in a partridge; whereas others, when fed up to this condition,
will do no serious work, but go off soaring on their own account, or
take perch in a tree or rick, and stare unconcernedly at the lure as
if they had no conception that it had any attractions for them. The
experienced falconer will form a better judgment as to the condition
of his hawk from the manner in which she flies. There is a power and
ease of motion about a full-fleshed hawk, a force in her stoop, and a
sort of pride about her every movement, which one looks for in vain in
a hawk in poor condition. Thin hawks fly in a laboured way against a
strong wind, instead of facing it easily and appearing to rejoice in
their victory over it, utilising its very opposition to lift them up,
and sailing on it like a stiff yacht in a gale. Weak flying may result
from overfeeding as well as underfeeding. But in the one case the style
appears too heavy; and in the other, too light.
It is, however, very easy to mistake the symptoms, and to imagine
that a hawk wants reducing when in fact she wants feeding up. The
result, of course, of such faulty diagnosis will be that the treatment
applied as a remedy aggravates the mischief already done. It is much
easier to reduce a hawk than to get flesh on her again. The beginner
should therefore be very sure that his hawk has been overfed before he
shortens her daily supply of food. By making a mistake on the other
side, and feeding up a hawk which is already a bit above herself, the
worst inconvenience that is likely to follow, in the case of an eyess,
is a little delay in getting her down to the lure. Passage hawks,
especially for a while after they have first been reclaimed, are of
course liable to be lost if too highly fed, for when disinclined to
come to the lure or fist they are apt to rake away after chance quarry.
But they may be full-fleshed and strong, and yet be eager for their
food. It is a great mistake, though a very common one, to suppose that
a thin hawk is necessarily a hungry one. Whether a hawk is fat or thin
is a question of days, whereas it is a question of hours whether she
is hungry or not. For instance, a peregrine may have had nearly a full
crop every day for a week, and yet if on the eighth day she has only
a very light feed in the morning she will be as hungry as a hunter on
the ninth day in the afternoon. The tendency nowadays is rather to
overfeed hawks, and to forget the old maxim about a fat hawk making "a
lean horse and an empty purse." The amateur has been so loudly warned
against keeping a thin hawk that in avoiding this reproach he falls
into the other extreme, and attempts to fly his hawk when she is really
not sharp-set at all.
Washed meat--so commonly used by the old falconers, that it may almost
be said to have been a normal daily diet--is now but rarely given,
unless, indeed, where a parsimonious or careless owner has neglected to
provide fresh meat, and tainted beef is soaked and squeezed so as to
make it available as food. The proper mode of preparing washed meat is
to take it when quite fresh and immerse it for a while in cold water,
and then dry it in a warm place. Part of its nutritive power--of its
goodness, in fact--will then have disappeared, and what remains will
digest quickly, leaving the hawk more keen and sooner hungry than if
she had swallowed the same quantity of unwashed meat. For the smaller
hawks it is less suitable than for the larger; and if it is desired to
take them down a peg or two, it will generally be found best either to
resort to a diet naturally light, such as rabbit or sheep's heart, or
to reduce a little in quantity the accustomed allowance of their usual
food. When a merlin is a bit bumptious, independent, and disobedient,
her morning ration may be curtailed, or in feeding up after the day's
exercise she may be indulged only with a good half-crop, instead of the
habitual three-quarters. When a peregrine or hawk of similar habits is
inclined to be uppish, and to disdain the dead lure, it is a good plan,
besides being a shade stingy at dinner-time, to fly her each day at
least an hour later than the day before. When, in this way, her time of
flying has got to be so late that it cannot be deferred till later on
the following day, give her a gorge, or at least a very full meal, when
she has done flying, and on the next day, an hour after she has cast,
give her quite a light feed, and do not fly her at all till the day
after at noon. Sakers, lanners, and that class of hawks must be rather
sternly treated if they get above themselves, for their nature is to
support long fasts without much trouble. And eagles, of course, must
sometimes be almost starved a little.
Remember always that the food given to a trained hawk belongs to one
or other of several categories, which rank differently as regards
nutritive power. Highest on the list is the flesh of birds or other
animals eaten immediately after they are killed, while the life-blood
is still warm within them. The meals of wild hawks are, as a rule, of
this description; and these accordingly, by virtue of their diet, as
well as of their habits, are the most vigorous and healthy of all.
Next in order comes the flesh of such creatures as have been killed
long enough to grow cold. And in the last rank must be placed washed
meat--artificially reduced to its least nutritive character. When it
is desired to improve the condition of a hawk, food of the first class
will most quickly and most surely effect the object. Any hawk which is
found to be below par should have at the first opportunity at least one
"bloody crop," _i.e._ should either be allowed to take her pleasure on
some quarry which she has herself killed, or be indulged with a pigeon,
duck, fowl, or other animal which has just been killed. The flesh of
animals, whether freshly killed or not, differs a good deal in quality.
Pigeons, duck, plovers, and sparrows are about the most nourishing;
chickens, rabbits, quails, larks, and mice, somewhat less so. The flesh
of rooks, gulls, magpies, water-hens, and coots is not very palatable;
and some trained hawks will not touch it. None are likely to improve in
condition if fed upon it. There is nothing a trained hawk likes better
than good tender beef, especially if it is slightly warmed before being
given. It is also very sustaining, and will increase a hawk's weight
rapidly, when a generous allowance of it is made. It is, however,
much heavier and more solid than the natural food of any hawk, and
therefore apt, if freely given, to make her dull, slow, and sluggish.
For sparrow-hawks and merlins it is distinctly bad, if often taken,
and in large quantities at a time. These latter, when in flying order
at the right season of the year, are, of course, almost always fed
up in the field on the quarry they have last killed before finishing
their day's work, and the next morning have a few mouthfuls of similar
food which has been killed the afternoon before. When a rook-hawk will
readily feed up in the same way on her vanquished quarry, it will be
convenient, occasionally at least, to let her do so. Game-hawks should
also be allowed sometimes to take their pleasure on their own grouse,
partridge, pheasant, or even woodcock; but in practice they are seldom
lucky enough to get more than the heads and necks, though modern
falconers who fly mostly for sport, and not "for the pot," are often
more liberal in this respect than their predecessors of the Middle Ages.
Goshawks, when kept to hares, or indeed to any quarry which taxes their
utmost powers, should often be allowed to finish their meal on one of
their victims. Between whiles they may often with advantage be regaled
with washed meat only, or some not very appetising food. It is well to
induce all hawks to believe that a kill after a hard flight means an
extra good feast. But merlins and male sparrow-hawks must very seldom,
if at all, know the taste of washed meat, or of any third-rate diet.
Some of them, when in first-rate fettle, are very dainty, and will
lose the pink of their condition if not indulged with their favourite
food. These little hawks are exceedingly fond of swallows and some
other very small birds; and although few people would be barbarous
enough to deliberately kill any small bird except a sparrow, yet if
a young martin should be picked up under the nest from which it has
accidentally fallen, and given to a merlin, it will be odd if that
hawk does not fly unusually well when next put on the wing. In the
lark-hawking season, one of these active workers will not only keep
herself in food, but often supply enough extra victims to provide a
daily meal of the very best kind for a tiercel, or even a falcon, which
happens then to be in moult. The short-winged hawks will also sometimes
in one afternoon kill more than they could themselves eat in a week.
A not unimportant item of the commissariat is a supply of good tirings.
A tiring may consist of anything tough which is appetising enough for
a hawk to keep pulling and picking at it 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 inducement 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 familiarity, but bate off. When she is on the fist
again, let her recommence 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 indignity
of being stroked. So also, while she is pulling contentedly at the
juiciest parts of the joint, you may take her more freely into the
presence of men, horses, dogs, and children--in fact, introduce her to
more society. The bolder you become the more inclined she will be to
let her mistrust prevail over her fondness for the feast, and the less
exclusively she will confine her attention to it. Thus a pigeon's wing,
which it would take a fully-trained tiercel less than five minutes to
dispose of, may, with a falcon caught only a fortnight ago, engage her
attention for nearly half an hour.
With tirings there will often be a small quantity of castings which
will be swallowed with the pickings of meat. The trainer must judge for
himself whether enough of them has been thus taken during the day to
form a proper pellet, or whether more should be given in another way.
In feeding up upon quarry which they have themselves killed, whether
on the fist or on the ground, hawks will almost always naturally take
castings enough. But when the meal consists of beef, or of anything
that has been skinned or plucked quite bare, it will be necessary
either to add some feathers or fur, or the like, scattering it about
on the meat which the hawk is about to swallow, or else the casting
may consist of a strip of skin with fur or feathers left on it, and
a piece of meat at one end. While swallowing the meat the hawk will
gulp down the skin attached to it, and thus with one or two mouthfuls
give herself the required quantity of castings. Some falconers make up
the casting into a sort of pill, and cram their hawks with it; and I
believe this plan answers the purpose very well, though I have seldom
if ever tried it. It is not, of course, necessary to give castings
every day. But they are generally beneficial, and always, as far as I
know, harmless. Some of the old falconers advise not to give castings
on days when a hawk has bathed; but I am unable to give the reason for
this. Castings are taken daily by wild hawks, which certainly have less
need of them than tame ones. And if, through laziness or any other
cause, the falconer omits for days in succession to give any, it is
pretty certain that his hawk's crop and stomach will become clogged
with a sort of mucus, which will either make her dull, sluggish, and
morose, or otherwise impair her general health. Castings should be
given rather late in the day than early; and after they have been taken
the hawk must always be kept unhooded at about the time when she may be
expected to throw them up, _i.e._ from about the fifth hour after she
has swallowed the casting, until she has cast. For this reason, if for
no other, when it is intended to train passage hawks in any place, it
must always be possible to darken artificially a part of the room, so
that hawks can sit there bareheaded on the perch after castings have
been given.
Another article which may in a sense be included in the category of
diet, is one which will somewhat surprise the reader who has heard
nothing about falconry before. This is "rangle," which is nothing more
nor less than small stones or pebbles, swallowed after the manner of
castings, and with a similar purpose and effect. After being taken into
the crop these exceedingly indigestible delicacies--popularly supposed
to be dear to ostriches only--collect around themselves by some special
process of attraction a quantity of that same mucus which is apt to
accumulate in a hawk's internal organism. When afterwards they are
thrown up--for not even the greediest goshawk will actually assimilate
stones--they come up with this oily coating adhering to them, having
operated as a sort of emetic, without any of the disagreeable
concomitants of physicking with drugs. Why the purpose for which rangle
is given cannot be as effectually accomplished by simple castings of
feather or fur, I am afraid I cannot explain ; but these latter do not
appear to be able to clear the hawk's inside of the particular kind
of superfluous humours which are extracted by the harder substance.
Possibly the weight of pebbles causes them to descend farther into the
crop, and thus clear it more thoroughly than any such light material
as can be given by way of castings. For the small hawks rangle may be
given by scattering a few pinches of rather fine gravel on the meat
at which they are picking. It is a good plan also to scatter about,
close to the blocks of any hawks for which a dose of this kind is
thought good, a few stones of a round smooth shape, varying in size
from that of a horse-bean for a falcon, to that of a sweet-pea seed
for a jack-merlin. The patient often knows instinctively when such a
dose is likely to do her good, and swallows one or more of the stones
voluntarily. If she does not, and it is thought advisable that she
should be dosed whether she likes it or not, the hawk may be cast, and
the tasteless pill slipped into her mouth, and pushed down with a small
stick. Latham, who was a great stickler for rangle, tells a quaint
story of a hawk which he owned. He stuffed her with sixteen stones,
which she threw up in due course. The stones were picked up and washed,
and put down again near the hawk's block on the following evening.
And every day for a month successively this very accommodating hawk
voluntarily picked up and swallowed some dozen of the stones, which
were daily collected, washed, and put down again. When a hawk, after
moulting, is taken out, or "drawn," as the old writers call it, from
the mews, it is generally beneficial to give her rangle. Hack hawks,
when taken up, are often all the better for it; and when a hawk seems
dull, or displays dyspeptic symptoms, she may not unfrequently be cured
off-hand by the same simple expedient.
Every evening the falconer, having fed up all his hawks (and possibly
himself) and noted down in his register what has been killed or done
by each of them, should collect all the bodies or pelts of the slain
which have not been used as food, and bestow them in a separate place
in his larder, so that the results of one day's campaigning may not get
mixed up with those of a previous day, and it may be known how long
each unfortunate has been killed. In hot weather no small bird, and
very few other things, are fit to be given to a hawk if they have been
dead more than twenty-four hours. In the tropics, of course, meat goes
bad still more quickly; and at about tiffin-time everything which has
been killed earlier than on the same day should be cleared out of the
hawks' larder. If the falconer can get to roost soon after his charges
he will think himself fortunate. For the making up of his diary is,
on busy days, quite a business in itself. Then it is possible that
some accident has occurred. If there has been a broken feather, the
damaged hawk must be imped. If one is amiss, measures must be taken for
applying the proper remedies. If a jess is worn, it must be replaced.
But the worst trouble is if a hawk has been left out. Then the wretched
falconer must make up his mind to set forth before daybreak on a long
and weary search. But of these pains and griefs, to which the poor man
may always be a victim, we shall have to speak in future chapters.