INTR on UCTION. xxvii 



tremely easy to read, and, with the aid of the polyglot Vocabu- 

 lary at the end of this Bibliotheca Accipitraria, would furnish a 

 Latin classic for schools which to the majority of schoolboys 

 would prove of far greater interest than the works of many 

 Latin authors which are placed in their hands at the present 

 day. A good English translation of this, and of De Thou's 

 celebrated poem, would form acceptable additions to the well- 

 known series of Latin classics for English readers. 



Greek. — The only treatise deserving of special mention is 

 that of Demetrius of Constantinople (327), one of the oldest 

 writers on Falconry, The text was first printed by Nicolas 

 Rigault, librarian to Louis XIIL, in his Ret Accipitrarice 

 Scriptores (314), from two MSS. in the Bibhotheque Royale, 

 Paris ; but a Latin translation by Pierre Gilles (a Petro Gillio 

 Latine redditus) had been previously pubHshed at Leyden in 

 1562, with the Historia Animalium of iElian. This is re- 

 printed by Rigault {op. cit.) with separate pagination (pp. i- 

 118). An English analysis will be found in the present 

 volume (pp. 182—183). The learned Sir Thomas Browne (36) 

 has remarked that " the Greeks understood hunting early, but 

 little or nothing of our Falconry. If Alexander had known it, 

 we might have found something of it and more of hawks in 



Aristotle Though he hath mentioned divers hawks, 



yet Julius Scaliger, an expert falconer, despaired to reconcile 

 them unto ours. And 'tis well if among them you can clearly 

 make out a Lanner, a Sparrowhawk, and a Kestril, but must 

 not hope to find your Gerfalcon there, which is the noble 

 hawk ; and I wish you one no worse than that of Henry, King 

 of Navarre, which Scaliger saith he saw strike down a buzzard, 

 two wild geese, divers kites, a crane and a swan " (pp. city 

 p. 118; Wilkins' ed., vol. iv. p. 189). The statement of 

 Scaliger, it is presumed, is to be found in his Annotations to 

 Aristotle's Historia Animalium, although a search for the parti- 

 cular passage has not led to its discovery. (See pp. 9, 179.) 



Russian. — The work of Constantine Haller (336), late Pre- 

 sident of the Russian Falconry Club at St. Petersburg, 1885, 

 is the only one of the half-dozen here catalogued that is 

 worthy of special mention. It will be seen from the English 



