ANCIENT METHODS OF CAPTURING WILD-FOWL. 11 



given them a share of the booty, they would have been deprived of 

 their assistance.* 



Tiiis division of the prey between the fowler and his hawks is 

 also mentioned by Pliny — "Rursus captas aucupes dividunt cum 

 iis."t 



The rapacious birds used for the purposes of fowling- were termed 

 t£|oaK£c by Grecian authors. Pliny terms them " accipitres." 



There are curious assertions in a book ascribed to Aristotle,| that 

 in Thrace, falcons were so perfectly trained as to answer to their 

 names, and g-o direct to the fowler when called; and that they 

 used to bring- to him, of their own accord, whatever prey they had 

 taken. 



The ancient falconer delig-hted to make wild-fowl his quarry : the 

 pursuit of such birds was his favourite diversion, as will be seen on 

 reference to the earliest treatises upon that once princely and popular 

 recreation.^ 



Falconry is still practised, in some countries, with all the spirit and 

 enthusiasm of the good old times. In Hungary particularly, hawking-- 

 parties are highly attractive,|| and of frequent occurrence. In that 

 country, as in Eng-land, the heron is the favourite quarry. 



The nobility of Mingrelia practise falconry, particularly for the pur- 

 pose of capturing- wildfowl. They pursue the sport on horseback, 

 and carry a small drum at the pommel of the saddle ; and by beating* 

 the drum they put up the birds, and then fly their hawks at them. II 



H-awking is said to have been constantly in use in England down 

 to the year 1725, when sAooim^jr/^/in^ was introduced, to the g-reat 

 astonishment of the Dalesmen.** 



Some of the early English poets make marked allusion to water-fowl 

 as the falconer's best quarry : 



" No fellow to the flight at broote, tliat game is fall of glee."tt 

 " The duck and mallard first, the falconer's only sport. "J J 



* " Thraces si quas ceperint aves, cum accipitribus partiri, eosque turn ad aucupii 

 societatem fidos habere ; sin cum his earum partem, quas ceperint, avium non com- 

 municaverint, aucupii sociis privari." — jElian Hist. Anim., lib. ii., cap. 42, 



f Pliny, lib. x. cap. viii. s. 23. 



J De Mhabilibus Auscultat. cap. 128. 



§ See also " De Arte Venandi cum Avibus" — a work of extreme scarcity, printed 

 at Augsburgh, anno 1596, from a MS. belonging to Joachim Camerarius, a phy- 

 sician at Nuremburg. 



II Rambles in Search of Sport ; by the Hon. F. St. John : a.d. 1853. 



^ Travels in Persia and the East Indies ; by Sir John Chardin : 1643. 



** Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. i., p. 309. 



tt Tm-berville. Xt Drayton. 



