To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
IF your hawkes casting be long, not wrought round, and bée full of water, how much more long and moist it is, so much more it betokeneth the hawke to be diseased. And againe, if so it be blacke, & stinking, so much the more the hawke is in euil case & state. All and euery of these signes do yéelde a shew and proofe, that the hawk hath béen foule fod, & with corrupt flesh. Wherefore to remedy this mischiefe, you must féede her with hote Birdes, as Swallowes, Sparrowes, young
Doues and such like, giuing them aliue, or as soone as they are killed.
But if it so happen, for all this care and good intendaunce, that the casting continue at one selfe stay, and be like euill in shew, then must you néedes giue your Hawke askowring, according to art, such as I will teach you to make hereafter.
If your Hawkes casting be gréene, it is a signe that she is ill affected and diseased in the Liuer, the cure whereof I will referre to a peculiar chapter for the same euil. But know ne∣uerthelesse, that hawkes when they are ramage, diuers times doe cast such like gréene castinges as I speake of, and make such muets, by reason of some wilde fowle, that they haue kil∣led and preyed vpon at their owne pleasure, or otherwise haue had the same giuen them by Falconers. And a man néede not greatly force thereof, for that with good féeding, they will lightly be recouered, and ridde of this disease.
When the casting hapneth to bée yellowish blacke, and very moist and slimy, it argueth your Hawke to bee stuft with euill humors, procéeding of too great heat, or of immo∣derate and ouer great flights, or too much bating. For recoue∣ry of which euill, you must as spéedily as you may, bestow good féeding vpon your hawke, and coole her, by washing her meat in good fresh water, as endiue water, or such like, as shall best please the fancy of the Falconer, allowing her be∣sides one or two, or moe castings of cotton: into which you must conuey very excellent good mummy beaten into pouder, and otherwise among incense, vsed in like manner. But if it so fall out that your hawke continue her ill casting, for all this remedy it shall not be amisse, fortwice or thrice to giue her this kind of casting, or vpward scowring euery other day.
Take Aloes washt and beaten to powder, one scruple, pow∣der of Cloue foure graines, of Cubebes beaten to powder thrée graines: all which béeing well confected, and made in mixture, enwrappe in a péece of cotton and giue your hawke being emptie, and hauing no meate aboue, or in her pannell.
And I nothing doubt, but vsing this order which I prescribe you, your hawke shall recouer in short space. In any case you must be circumspect and héedefuil, hauing a hawke thus dis∣eased, to marke diligentlie whether the doe mend or payre, whether she waxe high, or abate her flesh. For that according as she shall doe any of these, it shall be necessary for you ey∣ther to augment or decrease your scowring, and her féeding. And beléeue me, I know this by experiēce, that sondry hawks doe perish more by béeing ouer poor and low brought, through negligence of ill kéepers that make slender regard of them, thā by the extremity of the disease. This shall be sufficient as tou∣ching castings of cotton, which (as I said before) were peculi∣ar to Falcons.
Falconers are accustomed to giue their hawkes casting of plumage, sometimes being empty aboue, and eake in feeding to suffer thē to take feathers, but specially to Sparowhawks. They giue them ioukes of wings of small birds, & Quailes, when they haue fedde them, tearing them out with their téeth, and plucking away the longest feathers, and so giue it.
These castings ln the morning being wrought round, and cast without any ill sauour or stinke, doe make euident shewe that the hawke is sound: and how much more round & swéete they are, the better token of the hawkes géed state. But con∣trariwise, if the casting bée long, slimy, and rammish in smel, with some small parts of the flesh vndisgested, cleaning to the same, and withall frothie, hauing a kind of foame sticking on it, all these things together, and euery one speciall by it selfe, doe import the disease of the hawke, and make full shew of her ill state. And therefore that shée standeth néedfull of a good scowring, and good intendance, as I said before.
Black ca∣sting.
Greene ca∣sting.
Yellowish black ca∣sting.
Casting of plumage.