150 THE HAWK TRIBE. 



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 may form some idea from the 

 attention paid by the king of Denmark, in procuring 

 and preserving certain Falcons which were in the 

 highest estimation, from his island of Iceland, and 

 were then, and still are known, by the name of the 

 Iceland Falcon (Falco Icelandicus, Falco Gyrfalco). 

 Next to the Eagle, it was reputed the most formi- 

 dable and active, as well as most prompt and intrepid 

 of our birds of prey. 



In the winter, whole flights of these birds come 

 over from Greenland and the Arctic regions, where 

 they probably breed, and pass the summer, as Capr- 

 tain Sir Edward Parry saw them frequently in his 

 last voyage. These Icelandic Falcons were always 

 considered the best for sport, lasting ten or twelve 

 years ; whereas, those from Norway, not above two 

 or three years: they are also superior in size, and 

 gifted with extraordinary qualities. So much were 

 they, indeed, prized, that an ancient Danish law in- 

 flicted the punishment of death on any person found 

 guilty of destroying them; and those engaged in 

 taking them, were bound under heavy penalties, to 

 deliver them to no other person whatever but the 

 king's own falconer, and even so late as 1758, the 

 spirit of the law was not much changed, judging 

 from the following account of a writer on Icelandic 

 history. He tells us that the king of Denmark 

 sends every year a falconer, with tw 7 o attendants. 

 On landing, they repair to a house called the king's 

 falcon-house, for the purpose of receiving the birds 



