120 



THE HA WK TRIBE. 



of the sport ; but it has been remarked that when the hard 



winters set in, the 



The Falcon. 



birds, if not con. 

 fined, take wing, 

 and are never seen 

 again. In China 

 it is a favourite 

 amusement with 

 some of the Man- 

 darins, or great 

 people, to hawk 

 for butterflies and 

 other large insects, 

 with birds trained 

 for that particular 

 sport. In India 

 the Goshawk and 

 two other species 

 are taught to keep 

 hovering over the 

 hunters' heads, and 



when deer or other game starts up, they dart down, as has been 

 before stated, and fix their claws upon its head, and thus 

 bewilder it till the pursuers come up. 



Near Tripoli, in Africa, on the wide plains, Bustards are 

 very common, — a large bird, once plentiful in some parts of 

 England, though now, in consequence of the increase of popu- 

 lation and enclosure of the waste tracts of land, no longer to 

 be seen ; they are larger than Turkeys, and though their wings 

 are so short as to be of little use to them in flying, they enable 

 them to use their long legs with a speed equal to that of a 

 greyhound, and afford excellent sport when pursued by Hawks ; 

 and Bustard-coursing is therefore a favourite amusement with 

 persons of rank in that country. Hawking, however, to any 

 extent, is at the present day nothing compared with what it 

 was a few hundred years ago in England and many parts of 

 Europe, when it was followed with an eagerness and a degree 



