Publications of the Clan Lindsay Society - Electric Scotland

144 THE KOYAL FALCONKUS VV SCOTLANJi.
new goshawks on one journey from Inverness, and he
was only one of many men similarly employed at
the same time in various parts of ihe country. The
chief source of supply was the Orkney Islands. To
the hawks bred there the Crown had a first claim,
and the Sheriff of the county had a standing mandate
to pay the expenses of the men sent to collect them.
When in 1644 the Earldom of Orkney was mortgaged
to the Earl of Morton, the mortgagee was required to
furnish the usual quota of hawks to the king or pay
£235 13s. 4d. per annum; and as late as 1707 this
claim was reasserted.
The young falcon, soon after being taken from the
nest, was put into training. A pair of narrow straps
of soft leather about seven or eight inches long, called
the jesses, were permanently attached one to each leg.
These served to secure the bird when carried on the
hand, or could be fixed to the leash which confined it
within a narrow range of the block on which it perched.
Above the jesses a pair of bells were bound to the
legs, by the sound of which the hawk might be traced
when it strayed. A hood was put over its head
covering the eyes, and it was accustomed to being
hooded and unhooded. The hood was of leather,
which was sometimes elaborately tooled and ornamented
with pearls and other stones. One such was
shown in the historical section of the Glasgow
Exhibition of 1901, which was said to have been given
by James IV. to the ancestor of the Flemings of
Barochan, Honorary Falconers to the King in Scotland.
From the crown of the hood rose a crest of feathers
that might be those of rare birds. The feathers of