42 Practicat, Bird-Kekping. 



V. 

 HAWKS AND OWLS. 



By J. Lewis Bonhote, M.A. 



I. HAWKS. 



Although not, properly speaking, cage birds, this Order 

 includes, to my way of thinking, some of the most fascinating 

 of birds. Probably from their use in the royal sport of Hawking 

 they were one of the earliest birds to be kept in confinement 

 (excepting, of course, fowls, pigeons and ducks, and possibly 

 the Brush Turkeys) and their extreme reluctance to breed in 

 confinement has probably been the most powerful factor in 

 preventing their domestication. In spite, however, of the many 

 centuries during which they have been kept by man, there 

 is perhaps no group of birds that, considering its very simple 

 needs, has been so misunderstood, and owing to this, but a 

 very small percentage of the individuals seen in Zoological 

 Gardens are in what one might consider really good trim. I 

 am not dealing in this article with Hawks used for hawking, 

 they naturally need a treatment to suit the purposes for which 

 they are required, and to any readers who may wish to keep 

 them for that purpose I may refer them to Mr. Harting's 

 valuable book on the " Practical Management of Hawks."* We 

 have, however, to consider the keeping of these birds in large 

 cages or aviaries in which much active exercise is impossible. 

 To keep a Hawk as kept by falconers on 'jesses ' tied to a perch 

 or block is, if it is not being used for hawking, cruel and unkind. 



* Practical Manasement of Hawks. Seconded. 8vo. London, 1898. 



