xu 



IN TROD UCTION. 



reference to the following table, which also shows the impor- 

 tant additions which have been made to the catalogue published 

 by Schlegel : — 



On examining the titles of all these works, two things are 

 particularly striking — first, the great antiquity of Falconry; 

 and secondly, its widespread practice. 



The origin of the 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 Henry Layard's discovery of a bas- 

 relief amongst the ruins of Khorsabad, in which a falconer is 

 represented carrying a hawk upon his fist. From this he 

 has inferred that hawking was practised there some 1700 

 years before the Christian era. 



In China it was known even at an earlier date than this. 



