The booke of falconrie or havvking for the onely delight and pleasure of all noblemen and gentlemen : collected out of the best authors, aswell Italians as Frenchmen, and some English practises withall concerning falconrie / heretofore published by George Turbervile, Gentleman.

Of the Flanders.

NOw I am entred in spéech of worms, I thinke it good to write somwhat of y^e Filanders, to giue both knowledge &

cure of them. Albeit these worms do not al depēd of the gorge, for their natural place, & being is near the the rains of a hawk, where they be enwrapped in a certaine thin net or skin, seueral by themselues, apart from eyther gut or gorge.

These Filanders (as the very name doth import,) are smal as thréeds, & one quarter of an inch long, and more proper and peculiar to Falcons, than to any other hawke or fowle. And this makes me to thinke that they are naturally allowed the Falcon, because indéed they doe not at all times vexe & trouble the hawks, but now and then, & especially when the hawk is poor & low of flesh. But if she be hie & lusty, then by reason of the abundance of nourishment & food that they receyue from the hawke, they molest her not at all, but rather do her good: & my reason is this. I cannot be induced to thinke that nature (who doth vse to make nothing but to some end and purpose) hath produced and placed those Filanders in that part of the falcon for naught, or to hurt the hawke. But how & in what sort they pleasure or profit the hawke, I could neuer yet reach by con∣iecture.

When they are troubled and grieued with the Filanders, you shall first discerne it by the pouerty of the hawkes, by ruf∣fling their traines, & by certain twitches and starts that they will make, strayning the fist or pearch with their pownce, and lastly by their crooking in the night time, which kind of noyse they vtter, when the Filanders pricke and gripe them within. For when they want their sustenance, which they can by no meanes haue when the hawks are low and poore, then do they endeauour to rend and breake that slender net wherein they are naturally inclosed, to issue out to séeke their victuals some other where. And many times it hapneth, that, not séeing to it in time, and at the first, they passe through their web, & crall vp as hie as the very heart, and other principall partes of the Hawke, whoreof it must néeds consequently follow, that shée perisheth without redemption.

I haue sometimes séene this pestilent worme by piercing

and breaking the bed wherein nature hath layde them, ascend vp so hie as they came forth, & appeared at the Hawkes beake and mouth.

Wherefore it shall be necessary to respect the cure of these Fylanders, not by killing them as you would doe other wormes, (for then happily being dead, and rotting in that pléece, from whence they cannot passe away with the hawks mewte, they would there corrupt & breed a filthie impostume in her) but the way that you must take, is, by making them drunke with some medicine to entertaine them in such forte, as they may not offend or gripe the hawke.

The best remedy that can bée deuised for it, is to take a Garlick head, pilling from the cloues therof the vtmost rind: which done, you shall w^c some small yron toole or bodkin heat in the fire, pierce the Cloues, and make certaine holes in thē. And afterwards stéeping them in oyle at least thrée dayes, giue your Falcon one of them down her throat: for the Cloue of Garlicke vsed in this manner as I tell you, will so enrage & astone the Filanders, that for thirty or forty dayes after they will not at all molest your Hawke Whereupon some Falco∣ners when their Falcons bee low and poore, once in a moneth doe of ordinarie giue them a cloue of Garlicke for feare of the Filanders, to preuent the worst, and truly to good effect. And for that very purpose and cause, are seldome or neuer without Garlicke stéeped in Oyle, where the longer they lye, the bet∣ter, and more medicinable they are.

Thus must you deale with those Filanders that lie in the raynes. But there is one other kind of Filanders lying in the guts or panel of a hawke, which are long, small and white worms, as though they had dropt out of the raines of y^e hawk. If you will destroy those Filanders, you must take Aloes E∣paticke, fylings of yron, Nutmegs, & so much hony as will serue to frame a pyll, which pyll you shall giue your hawke in y^t morning, as soon as shée hath cast, holding her on the fist for the space of an howre after. Thē cast her on the perch, & when

you gesse her to haue slised her fill, and mewted it cleane, then féede her with good hote meate.

There are besides these, yet one other sort of Filanders in the guts of a hawke also, which cause a hawk to cast her gorge as soone as shée hath fed, and doe make her strong breathed: for them prouide this remedie.

Take Aloes Epaticke, & wormwood made into very smal powder, temper the powder with oyle of bitter Almonds: and that done, annoint therewith the flankes and sides of your hawke. And if you like not the oyle, for gresing your Falcons feathers and plumes, compound those foresaid powders with Vineger at the fire: but it is certaine that the Oyle is the bet∣ter far of both, and more proper to this disease,

If you can, giue your hawke oyle of bitter Almonds, and not disquiet her gorge, and after it bestow the other cure vpon her, with the annointing her as I haue taught you, you shall find it the most perfect remedy that may be against those Fi∣landers that lodge in the guts and bowels of your hawke.