THE HAWK TRIBE. 



123 



The Falcon. 



that when the hard 

 winters set in, the 

 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 pur- 

 suers 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 aiford 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, com- 

 pared 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 of expense far beyond the cost of fox- 

 hunting, racing, or any of the field sports of modern times. 

 Of the value and importance attached to birds of the right 

 breed (for all Hawks were far from being equally good), we 



