My son, though life and death are in the hands of the Creator, still the physician is for the relief of the sick. Such remedies and treatments as I have by my own experience proved beneficial, I will here set down, so that they may remain on record.

Now, you must know that the pulse of birds lies in the second joint of the wing, and that the heat and the moisture of their temperament is known by holding the wing and feeling the pulse in it.

Know, that the pulse of a man in perfect health (that is a man in whom the four humours are balanced, no one humour preponderating over another), has seventy-five pulsations to the minute. If humidity preponderate, it beats less; if heat, more. In birds of prey, however, on account of their natural heat, the pulse beats from 135 to 140.[655] If the bird be fevered, it beats more; but if humidity preponderate, then less.

The signs of health in a short-winged hawk are these: she should be bright and ever on the look-out for food, and never mournful nor moping. The morning casting should be firm. When she mutes, she should do so quickly, and the mutes should be cast clear away to a distance:[656] the white of the mutes should be very white, with the dark portion somewhat firmer. She should drink regularly, and should bathe. After feeding, the stomach[657] should be quickly filled. When in the evening you place the hawk on her perch,[658] she should not sleep in the centre of it, but should move to one side to do so. A hawk that does all this is in robust health; but if out of sorts these conditions will not be found in her.

FOOTNOTES:

[654] Mānda, “bruised, crushed”; an unusual expression.

[655] Later on, under “Hectic Fever or Phthisis,” the author states that the pulse of a hawk in health is 120 to 130.

CHAPTER XLIII
ON DISEASES OF THE HEAD AND EYES

It may happen that a cataract form on your hawk’s eye. If so:—

Remedy: should it arise from humidity of temperament, feed her for three days on larks and sparrows, giving her the feathers so that she may cast in the morning. Should she not recover, then brand her with log-wood[659] between the eye and the nostril on both sides, making two small brands the size of a peppercorn. Item: take a tamarisk stick and put one end in the fire. Then take a piece of twisted cotton-wool and apply the oozing sap, quite hot, to the cataract. Give her also one small dose of manna,[660] so that she be “moved”[661] a few times. Item: remove the fine film with scissors.