thread; which, in cows or oxen, may be tied to one of the horns. The haw is then to be carefully cut out with a knife, after which the eye should be dressed, then washed with a sponge dipped in beer, or ale, and salt, in order to clease it properly, and absorb the blood. This operation, however, ought to be performed only by skilful farriers, as many valuable horses have been rendered irrecoverably blind by the deep cutting of ignorant pretenders. In such case, the wound must be dressed with honey of roses; and, if any fungous or spongy flesh should arise, it ought to be sprinkled with burnt alum, or to be touched with blue vitriol, that it might be completely eradicated. Where sheep are affected with the haws, the practice is to drop the juice of chamomile, or crows-foot, into the eye.
HAWK, the Common, or Sparrowhawk, Falco Nisus, L. is a bold and spirited bird: it abounds in almost every part of Europe; and varieties of it are found dispersed over the whole earth.
The length of the male of these birds is twelve inches; that of the female fifteen; the former differs both in size and colour from the latter. The female builds her nest in hollow trees, high rocks, or lofty ruins, sometimes in the old nest of a crow, and generally lays four or five eggs, marked at the pointed end with reddish spots.
The Sparrowhawk is obedient and docile: by keeping him awake three or four days successively in a hoop, till he become almost delirious, he may afterwards be easily trained to hunt partridges and quails. In a wild state, however, these creatures commit great depredations on pigeons, poultry, rabbits, hares, &c. so that the following method of catching them will probably be acceptable to many readers.
A hawk-cage, made upon a plan similar to that of a goldfinch trap-cage, but larger, and baited with two house-sparrows, should be exposed in a fine clear morning, on a hedge, or some other open place, and left out till late in the evening. By this simple contrivance, those predatory birds might be easily taken; and either destroyed, or preserved for the purposes of hawking; an amusement that has lately been abandoned in this country, and therefore requires no description.
HAWKWEED, or Hieracium, L. a native genus of perennial plants, comprising forty-six species, the principal of which are:
1. The Pilosella, Mouse-ear Hawkweed, which grows in dry meadows, pastures, and on walls; its flowers possess the singular property of opening in the morning, and closing early in the afternoon: they blow from May to September. This species differs from other lactescent plants, being less bitter, and more astringent, on which account it was formerly esteemed in the cure of blood-spitting.—It is considered as noxious to sheep, which are not partial to it; and though eaten by goats, it is refused by horses and cows.
2. The auricula, Narrow-leaved Hawkweed, or Umbelled Mouse-ear, thrives on mountains, in the county of Westmorland, and flowers in the month of July. It deserves to be cultivated on the borders of gardens where bees are kept; for, according to Bechstein, it furnishes them with an abundance of wax and honey.
