THE ART AND PRACTICE OF 

 HAWKING 



CHAPTER I 



History and Literature 



IT would be easy to fill a large volume with dissertations on 

 the antiquity of the art which is now called Falconry, and 

 with records of its history in different countries during the 

 many centuries that have elapsed since it was first practised. 

 In a treatise on practical hawking, such as the present, there is 

 no room for such matter ; and the omission will be the more 

 readily excused when it is explained that only a short time 

 ago the antiquities of the art, and the literature in which its 

 records are embodied, were most carefully and ably explored 

 by Mr. J. E. Harting, the erudite Secretary of the Linnean 

 Society, whose catalogue of books on hawking contains a refer- 

 ence to every known publication on the subject {Bibliotheca 

 Accipitraria, London, 1891). The actual origin of hawking, as 

 of other old sports, is naturally hidden in the obscurity of the 

 far-away past. No one would suppose that it was practised as 

 early in the world's history as the sister sports of hunting and 

 fishing. But Mr, Harting's researches have resulted in con- 

 vincing him that it was known at least as early as 400 B.C., 

 although its introduction into Europe must clearly be placed at 

 a much later date. It is remarkable enough that the Greeks, 

 whose country abounds in wild hawks, should have known 

 nothing of their use in the service of man. Homer, indeed, 

 speaks of the mountain falcon as " the most nimble of birds," 

 (jjuTf x/pjcog opstrp/i', iXaippoTarog '!rirsr}voJv, II. xxii. I 39) ; but Sophocles, 

 in alluding to the triumphs of man in taming and using wild 

 creatures, omits all mention of the training of hawks, which is 

 certainly more worthy of notice than mere bird-catching or 

 the breaking-in of oxen (Soph. Antig: 343). Even the later 



