Chapter LI On Canker of the Feathers704
This disease, which is called qārishqa,704 is commoner in Persia than elsewhere. From what I have observed, it arises from taking a moulting hawk out of the mew too soon, that is, while some of her feathers are still in blood. The hawk bates, injuring a young quill, and the blood dries up and putrifies; then the flesh near the root of the quill gets infected, and soon a tiny kind of maggot, similar to the “disease of parasites”705 that sometimes infests man, is produced, and it eats away the root. The following case, I think, corroborates my opinion:—
I once had a very fine eyess-goshawk, brought to me from an eyrie in Mazenderan, just about a month before Autumn. I noticed that one of the two centre tail-feathers, called the qāpāq feathers, was broken close to the flesh, too close to admit of “imping.” I thought that as it was a young bird I might pull out the feather without fear, and that it would speedily grow again.706 Accordingly with the utmost care I neatly removed the stump707 with pincers. On examining it, I found some hundreds of minute insects the size of a poppy seed, wriggling about inside the quill. I examined them under a magnifying glass; they looked just like lice,708 but were broader. It struck me that these were the cause of canker in quill feathers. I closed the end of the quill and circulated it for inspection amongst all my sporting friends and acquaintances. These parasites, after attacking and eating one quill, work their way under the flesh to the next, and so on. They have the same passion for feathers that white-ants709 have for wood. If you examine carefully, with a glass, a feather that has broken off from a hawk afflicted with this disease, you will find that it has a dead appearance; it has not the water of life in it: the marks of erosion will also be apparent. These insects are the cause of feather-rot, and naught else—but God knows best.
Treatment: first give her three doses of manna on alternate days, but give her no more manna than the quantity mentioned previously. Then cast her, and pull out the small feathers from round the diseased spot. If the flesh is black and swollen, it is a sign that the injury arises from a blow. Treatment: apply a leech to the injured spot and let it suck out the impure blood. Sprinkle salt on the wound, or apply ice to staunch the bleeding. Item: rub the injured spot with powdered stone or brick till the blood is near flowing; then apply the fouling of a tobacco-pipe. After this keep her loose in a room. Do this twice.
If, however, the spot be red, the disease is the second or parasitic kind. The treatment in both cases is the same, with a difference. Treatment: prick the red spot with a needle and induce a flow of blood. Mix vinegar and ox-gall, and paint it on the affected spot. Item: take carbonate of soda,710 blue-stone, sal-ammoniac, “yellow aloes,”711 and long pepper,712 a grain713 of each, and three black raisins: pound and mix. Prick the injured spot with a needle, and wash with strong vinegar. Then apply the powder and she will recover. This is the practice of the ancient falconers. Item: when the feather falls out, wait till a new one takes its place;714 then before the stage has arrived when it will fall out, pluck it out by force and do this three times. The fourth time let the feather reach maturity. This, too, is a receipt of the ancient falconers.
Footnotes
704 Par-k͟hura or par-k͟huragī, P.; qārishqa appears to be the Turkish name of the disease.
705 Daʿu ´l-qaml, lit. “disease of lice.” By this term the author probably refers to some parasite other than the louse, i.e., other than the common louse.
706 Flight-feathers that are pulled out never grow again; tail-feathers sometimes do; vide page 177, note 752.
707 Būqa.
708 Qaml, Ar.
709 Rashmīz, either white-ant or weevil.
710 Būra-yi Armanī, crude carbonate of soda.
711 i.e., Socotrinæ aloes, which are yellow.
712 Dār filfil, “Piper Longum.”
713 Dānak-i, a pea-grain in weight.
714 The author seems to have confused “false moult” with “feather-canker,” but the two diseases are separate. In “false moult” the hawk casts newly grown feathers, and, as it were, recommences a second moult before she is out of the first, and so on. This disease is well known to Indian falconers, but no case has come under my direct notice. In “feather-canker,” or in one form of it, the hawk moults well and clean, but when flying to the lure one of its flight-feathers will make a whirring sound as though not set in the wing at the proper angle. In a few days this feather will break off at, or in, the flesh, and there will probably be a trace of blood. One by one every flight-feather will break off in this manner. In the only case I have seen, the hawk, a saker, had moulted perfectly and was apparently in the best of health. The disease attacked both wings and she lost every one of her flight-feathers.