ANCIENT METHODS OF CAPTURING WILD-FOWL. 11 



given them a share of the booty, they would have been deprived of 

 their assistance.* 



This division of the prey between the fowler and his hawks is 

 also mentioned by Pliny "Rursus captas aucupes dividunt cum 

 iis."f 



The rapacious birds used for the purposes of fowling were termed 

 paKg by Grecian authors. Pliny terms them " accipitres" 



There are curious assertions in a book ascribed to Aristotle,! that 

 in Thrace, falcons were so perfectly trained as to answer to their 

 names, and go direct to the fowler when called; and that they 

 used to bring to him, of their own accord, whatever prey they had 

 taken. 



The ancient falconer delighted to make wild-fowl his quarry : the 

 pursuit of such birds was his favourite diversion, as will be seen on 

 reference to the earliest treatises upon that once princely and popular 

 recreation. 



Falconry is still practised, in some countries, with all the spirit and 

 enthusiasm of the good old times. In Hungary particularly, hawking- 

 parties are highly attractive,!! and of frequent occurrence. In that 

 country, as in England, the heron is the favourite quarry. 



The nobility of Mingrelia practise falconry, particularly for the pur- 

 pose of capturing wildfowl. They pursue the sport on horseback, 

 and carry a small drum at the pommel of the saddle ; and by beating 

 the drum they put up the birds, and then fly their hawks at them. 11 



Hawking is said to have been constantly in use in England down 

 to the year 1725, when shooting flying was introduced, to the great 

 astonishment of the Dalesmen.** 



Some of the early English poets make marked allusion to water-fowl 

 as the falconer's best quarry : 



" No fellow to the flight at brooke, that game is full of glee."ff 

 " The duck and mallard first, the falconer's only sport."! t 



* " Thraces si quas ceperint aves, cum accipitribus partiri, eosque turn ad aucupii 

 societatem fidos habere ; sin cum his earum partem, quas ceperint, avium non com- 

 municaverint, aucupii sociis privari." 2EUan Hist. Anim., lib. ii., cap. 42. 



f 1 Pliny, lib. x. cap. viii. s. 23. 



j De Mirabilibus Auscultat. cap. 128. 



See also " De Arte Yenandi cum Avibus" a work of extreme scarcity, printed 

 at Augsburgh, anno 1596, from a MS. belonging to Joachim Camerarius, a phy- 

 sician at Nuremburg. 



|| Rambles in Search of Sport ; by the Hon. F. St. John : A.D. 1853. 



*([ Travels in Persia and the East Indies ; by Sir John Chardin : 1643. 



** Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. i., p. 309. 



ft Turberville. JJ Drayton. 



