Q74 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
them to be of use to them in the chase; in other words, they 
instituted the art of Falconry or Hawking. 
The origin of this art it is now impossible to discover. From 
the earliest times of which history takes cognizance people of 
all nations, but more particularly those of eastern origin, have 
practised the sport; and we may form some idea of its antiquity 
from Sir A. H. Layard’s discovery of a bas-relief amongst the 
ruins of Khorsabad, in which a falconer is represented carrying a 
hawk upon his wrist. From this it is to be inferred that hawking 
was practised there some 1700 years B.c. In China it was known 
even at an earlier date than this; for in an old Japanese work, of 
which a French translation appeared at the beginning of the 
present century,* it is stated that Falcons were amongst the 
presents made #@ princes in the time of the Hia dynasty, which 
commenced in the year 2205 s.c. The records of King Wen 
Wang, who reigned over the province of Hunan between 689 and 
675 B.C. show that in his day Hawking was much in vogue there.t 
In Japan it seems to have been known many centuries before the 
Christian era, and probably at an equally early date in India, 
Arabia, Persia, and Syria. 
From the East it was introduced into Europe, although the 
precise date of such introduction is unknown; but from the 
allusions made to the sport by Aristotle,} Pliny,§ A‘lian,|| Martial,{] 
and Oppian,** brief and even vague though they be, we may infer 
that Hawking was known to, if not practised by, Europeans at 
least three centuries before the Christian era. 
John of Salisbury, who died in 1182, discussing the question 
of the origin of Falconry in Europe,}t+ arrived at the conclusion 
that it was introduced into Greece by Ulysses after the siege of 
Troy, an opinion which has been endorsed by several subsequent 
writers. According to Von Hammer,}} however, the Turks were 
the first masters of the art in Europe, and imparted it to the 
* «Topographie de la Province Kawatsi,’ par Akizato Rito, avee des planches 
faites par Tokei, peintre de Tanba-no. 6 vols. 8vo, 1801. 
+ The authority for this statement is an ancient Chinese MS. quoted by Schlegel, 
in his ‘ Traité de Fauconnerie.’ 
+ Hist. Anim. i. lib. 9, cap. 36. § Hist. Nat. lib. 7, cap. 10. 
|| De Nat. An. lib. 2, cap. 42. q Epigr. lib. 14, no, 216. 
** Cynegeticon, lib. 1, 62—66. 
++ ‘De nugis curialium, et vestigiis philosophorum,’ lib. 1, cap. +. 
tt Falknerklee, p. xx., quoted by Schlegel, op. cit. 
