I 4 2 HA WKS. 



for the chickens, after they became full-grown fowls, remamed 

 with it, and all lived together in the same garden in perfect 

 harmony. A single instance of so extraordinary a deviation 

 from the general habits of birds might have "been received 

 with hesitation, but when corroborated by similar occurrences 

 on record in other places, its truth scarcely admits of a doubt. 

 We have heard, indeed, a still more extraordinary circumstance, 

 namely, that of an Eagle, at an inn at Uxbridge, which also 

 hatched and brought up several broods of poultry. 



The attention of the Turks and Egyptians to certain Hawks 

 most probably arises from the respect paid to them in ancient 

 times, when the Hawk was held sacred, and when even 

 accidentally to kill one was punished by a heavy fine ; and 

 designedly to deprive it of life was a capital offence, and the 

 culprit suffered death. Various reasons are mentioned by old 

 writers for this veneration. Thus the Eagle was worshipped, 

 as a royal bird, and the favourite of their god Jupiter. The 

 Hawks were worshipped for different reasons ; some because 

 they were supposed to destroy scorpions, serpents, and divers 

 dangerous reptiles. Others again were deified, or held sacred, 

 because the priests, or augurs as they were called, made use of 

 their swift flight in their divinations, or pretended foretellings 

 of events which were to happen. And others, again, looked 

 upon them as sacred, from an ancient tradition, stating that 

 once upon a time, a book, bound about with a scarlet thread, 

 was brought to the priests of Thebes, by a Hawk, on which 

 were written all the secret rites and customs of the divine 

 worship of the Egyptians. This extraordinary respect was 

 not only shown to the living birds, but was even more marked 

 by the funeral attention paid to them when dead. Their 

 bodies were wrapped up in linen folds, steeped in perfumed 

 and precious oils, in order to preserve them ; and in this state 

 they are still frequently found in what are called the mummy- 

 pits of Egypt. A celebrated traveller, Mr. Salt, in his account 

 of Abyssinia, a country bordering on Egypt, speaks of a certain 

 species of Hawk, respecting which the people entertain a 

 singular superstition. When they set out on a journey, if 



