The first treatise in the following reprint is upon Hawking, a pastime essentially aristocratic from the great expense it entailed in the purchase, breeding, and maintenance of the birds. This, indeed, coupled with the diminution of game consequent on the progress of civilisation and the increase of the population, led to the gradual decadence of the sport, and nearly to its extinction in the eighteenth century, although, in very rare cases, falconry is even now practised. As we have seen, one of the most difficult objects in hawking was to obtain an easy command of the proper vocabulary, and so at first start our author instructs us in “The manner to speak of Hawks, from the egg.” We must not say a young hawk is hatched, but ‘disclosed;’ they do not breed but “eyer;” it was a want of culture in any falconer to say that hawks were building their nest, they “timbered” it. When the young could first leave the nest they were “Bowesses,” and when they could fly they were “Branchers,” and then was the time to catch and train them. When the young were caught, which was with nets, the first thing was to “ensile” them, that is, to “take a needle and thread and sew up the eyelids,” so that they “see never a dele.” After a night and a day the threads were cut softly for fear of breaking the “lyddis of the ighen,” then they were fed with well-washed flesh, but kept awake the next night and day, after which they were supposed to be tame, or “reclaimed.” The various diseases to which Hawks are liable are then explained, and medicines prescribed for them. Some of these are very absurd and some contradictory. Then comes a variety of terms for every movement and habit, for every limb or part of the body, and for almost every feather in the plumage. In this minute description the author begins at the feet of the bird and so works upwards, as when “Knyghttis been harnesside.” Next we are instructed how important it is to be careful of the manner of guiding the Hawk the first time it is ready to “nomme a partridge;” how to reward her by giving her the head and neck, after which on no account is she to fly again till she has “rejoiced,” _i.e._, sharpened her beak and shaken her feathers. More medicines follow, among which is how to get rid of “lies” (lice). “Take a piece of rough blanket and hold it to the fire till it is quite hot; wrap the hawk therein, and without hurting hold her ‘softely and stylly’ in your hands, and all the vermin will creep into the cloth.” A happy thought this! The “Gesse,” or strip of leather by which the Hawk is held when carrying her on the hand, is next described, together with the creance or long line. More medicines still, and then how to treat Hawks when “in mew,” or moulting, a matter of great importance. To promote “mewing” give the flesh of a kid, a young swan, and especially rats flesh; stewed adders are also strongly recommended, or chickens which have been fed upon wheat soaked in broth of vipers.