Class IL FALCONRY. 



find fecurity for his good behaviour forfeven years, 

 or lie in prifon till he did. Such was the enviable 

 date of the times oi old England: during the whole 

 day our gentry were given to the fowls of the air, 

 and the beads of the field : in the evening they ce- 

 lebrated their exploits with the moft abandoned and 

 brutidi fottiflinefs : at the fime time the inferi- 

 or rank of people, by the moft unjuft and arbitrary 

 laws, were liable to capital punifhments, to fines, 

 and lofs of liberty, for deftroying the moft noxious 

 of the feathered tribe. 



According to Olearius^ the diverfion of falconry 

 is more followed by the Tartars and Perjians^ than 

 ever it was in any part of Europe, II r^y avoit 

 point de hutte qui n'eujl Jon aigle on fon faucon*' 



Our anceftors made ufe of feveral kinds of na- 

 tive hawks ; though that penetrating and faithful 

 naturalift Mr. Ray^ has left us only the bare name 

 of a falcon in his lift of the Englijh birds, without 

 mentioning the fpecies. 



The falcons or hawks that were in ufe in thefe 

 kingdoms, are now found to breed in JVales^ and 

 in Nortb-BHlain, and its ifles. The peregrine fal- 

 con inhabits the rocks of CaernarvonJJm'e. The 

 fame fpecies, with the gyrfalcon^ the gentil^ and the 

 gojhawk are found in Scotland^ and the lanner in 

 Ireland. 



We may here take notice that the Norivegian 

 breed was, in old times, in high efteem with our coun- 

 ♦ Tom. I. 217. 328. 



N 3 trymen : 



173 



