171 



CHAP. XL. 



FAICONEY : ITS HISTOEY. — KOTAL UAWKIN^G. — HAWKUTG IJ^ PERSIA 



A>'D MOROCCO. — MARCO POLO. THE n\-\VK IX HERALDRY. — 



HAWKING IN SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND. — DECLINE OF THE SPORT, 

 THE GAMEKEEPERS'S ANNOYANCE. — THE LITERATURE OP FAL- 

 CONRY. — HAWKING ESTABLISHMENTS. GREENLAJSTD HA-\VKS. — 



NOBLE aUALITIES OF THE FALCON. 



" As when a cast of falcons make their flight 

 At an liernshaw that flies aloft on wing, 

 The whiles tliey strilve at him with heedless might, 

 The weary fowl his bill doth backward wring; 

 On which the first, whose force doth liring 

 Herself quite through the body, doth engore, 

 And fiilleth down to ground like senseless thing ; 

 But t'other, not so swift as she before. 

 Fails of her souse, and passing by, doth hurt no more." 



Spencer, F. Q. canto 7. 

 " But the hound bayeth loudly, 



The boar 's in the wood, 



And the falcon longs proudly 



To spring from her hood ; 



On the wi-ist of the noble. 



She sits like a crest." — Byron. 



" A merlin sat upon her wrist, 

 Held by a leash of silken twist." 



iffw of the Last Minstrel, canto 6, stanza 5. 



I ENTEPx on the subject of falconry with much pleasure 

 and satisfaction, not from any practical knowledge of 

 this manly field sport, for in the present age few persons 



