i86 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



most unfortunate by all the students of animal intelligence, 

 for it has deprived us of precious opportunities in the way of 

 observations on the mental peculiarities which exist in a most 

 interesting group of birds. In these days, when there is 

 a fancy for reviving the customs of our forefathers, it 

 might be well for some persons of leisure to give their atten- 

 tion to restoring 

 the arts of falconry. 

 Enough of the 

 practice and of the 

 traditions is left to 

 make it an easy 

 task to reinstitute 

 all the important 

 parts of the custom. 

 Moreover, those 

 who essayed the 

 matter would have 

 access to a much 

 greater range of 

 rapacious birds 

 than our forefath- 

 ers, who had to 

 content themselves with the limited number of wild spe- 

 cies which inhabit the continent of Europe. Especially on our 

 Western plains, where game-birds abound and the country 

 lies wide open, sportsmen would find an admirable field in 

 which to follow the bird they flew. Not only would the 

 restoration of hawking give us a sport much more skilful 

 and refined than the fox chase, but it would reintroduce the 

 cultivation of the only creature which, having once been 



The Bandit's Brood 



