BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND, 



CHAPTER I. 

 HAWKS AND OWLS. 



THEIR USE AND MISUSE. 



THOSE tyrants of the middle air, the falcons and their kind, 

 may boast of as much antiquity or as remote a genealogy as 

 any birds we know of. Over the portals of Assyrian temples 

 we recognize the familiar hooked beak and commanding 

 wings, and upon mummy cases of Egyptian princesses who 

 breathed when the world was six thousand years younger 

 than it is now the hawk comes out again aggressive and 

 predominant. 



In their relation to mankind they have played many 

 parts. There is first of all this typification and poetic 

 emblemism, springing from their keen vision, matchless 

 flight, and fierce ^courage. This placed the eagle at Jove's 

 footstool, and suggested him as a fitting bird to ride upon 

 the standards of ancient Rome round the world. Even 

 to-day, our great republics have this imperious and regal 

 bird as their token. Strange anomaly which perches this 

 autocrat and tyrant of his kind upon the banners of 

 "universal equality!" As for the poets, it is difficult to 

 say what would have happened had they been unable to 



