Publications of the Clan Lindsay Society - Electric Scotland

146 THE ROYAL FALCONERS OF SCOTLAND.
handicapped by having its fliglit f'catliers sliortened ;
and finally, to one possessed of its full powers. For
this purpose numbers oi" live herons, cranes, bitterns,
partridges, wild geese and wild duck were collected,
being purchased from poor people, captured by the
fowlers, or sent in by the landed gentry.
Besides training his hawks the falconer had to
treat them in sickness, and keep them in good
condition for their work. It was a frccjuent incident
of the king's journeys for a falconer to be left at some
place by the way because an ailing hawk was deemed
to be too sick to travel furtlier, and was too valuable
for its life to be jeopardised. Again, we hear of one
of the king's falconers surnamed, or nicknamed,
Fatbak, being paid his expenses while engaged in
collecting hawk feathers. These were required for the
repair of damages. When a hawk had any of its
flight feathers bent or broken it was more or less
handicapped. A bent feather could be straightened
by the use of hot water ;
a broken one was restored by
cutting off the damaged part and splicing to the stump
an exactly similar part from the corresj)onding feather
of another bird. The splice was effected by running a
needle dipped in salt and water upwards into the stem
of the new portion, and downwards into that of the
stump. The needle quickly rusted, and the feather
was then stronger than it had been before. This
process was called " Lnping," and might be used not
only for the repair of minor damages, but could also
be employed for increasing a hawk's power of flight.
When a bird was thought to be too heavy in the
body for its spread of wing, the extent of wing could