BIRDS. 523 



One to-day can hardly imagine the prominence which falconry occupied 

 for over a thousand years. " It was thought sufficient for noblemen's sons 

 to wind the horn, and to carry the hawk fair, and leave study and learning 

 to the children of meaner people " ; and a German author of 1485 com- 

 plains that " the gentry used to take the hawks and hounds to church 

 with them, disturbing the devotions of those religiously inclined, by the 

 screams and yells of the birds and beasts." All game and game-birds were 

 scrupulously protected. Any one finding a hawk was compelled to carry it 

 to the sheriff ; and any attempt to conceal it was punished in the same 

 way as stealing. Falcons commanded enormous prices ; and at least one 

 case is on record where a pair brought a thousand guineas. At the begin- 

 ning of the sixteenth century hawking began to decline. Then any one 

 might keep a hawk ; and James the First wrote for the direction of his 

 son : " As for hawking, I condemn it not ; but I must praise it more 

 sparingly because it neither resembles the warres so near as hunting doeth, 

 in making a man hardie and skilfully ridden on all grounds, and is more 

 uncertain and subject to all mischances ; and which is worst of all, is there 

 through an extreme stirrer-up of the passions." The spread of puritanical 

 ideas and the establishment of the Commonwealth in Great Britain put an 

 end to hawking ; and it was in vain that Lord Orford, in the last century, 

 spent a fortune in trying to revive an obsolete sport. 



Not only in England and France did falcons hold a high place, but all 

 the regions of the east ; India, China, Tartary, and the like, all had their 

 game falcons, and many continue the sport to this day. 



This once popular sport demands a brief description ; but there is no 

 need to introduce here the details nor any of the technical terms used in 

 books, which amount to hundreds. 



The falcons, before being used in the chase, had to undergo a long and 

 careful training, and the master of the hawks held a high place. The 

 training begins with accustoming the bird to the human being and teaching 

 him to recognize his master's voice. At first he is fed from the hand, and 

 then, with a string attached to the leg, is allowed to fly for his food, until 

 at last the bird is allowed to fly freely and to seek its own quarry, but 

 still care is taken that it shall take only the sort of game which it is 

 intended to chase. 



A hawking-party presented a gay sight. Ladies and gentlemen went 

 to the appointed place, the master of the hawks and his servants carrying 

 the birds, each with a hood upon his head, while the master of the hounds 

 followed with his pack. The hawk was set loose, and it quickly mounted 

 upwards, and with a circling flight, kept his eye open for game. The dogs 

 were now freed from the leash, and soon started up the birds from the 



