ORDER ACCIPITRES. 205 



account of whose names and works we shall not trouble the 

 reader. We must confine ourselves merely to what is neces- 

 sary to the understanding of the practice of falconry, and avoid, 

 as far as is possible, the usage of terms as useless, for the 

 most part, as they are barbarous. Technical terms are often 

 unavoidable in the exposition of many arts, but their intem- 

 perate usage is a silly and pernicious affectation. 



The ancient authors have only treated of the mechanical 

 parts of falconry ; but M. Huber, in a work published in 1784, 

 entitled Observations sur le VoldesOiseaux deProie, has entered 

 into the theory of the art. In this, as in most other matters, 

 practice has preceded theory, details have been carried into 

 operation before principles were examined ; and though we 

 might well imagine that the means employed by rapacious birds 

 in seizing their living victims, must form the natural foundation 

 of the art of falconry, yet we apprehend that M. Huber was 

 the first writer who paid any attention to this part of the 

 subject. 



This author divides the wings into rowing and sailing Avings 

 (rameuses et voili^resj. The birds provided with the former 

 sort he calls rowers, birds of high flight, or, as in the old French, 

 de leurre ; the latter he calls sailers, birds of low flight, in the 

 hawking jargon de poing. The wing of the first is slender, 

 attenuated, not much convex, and, when unfolded, subject to 

 very considerable tension. The first ten quills are entire, and 

 their barbs touch each other without discontinuity, in their 

 entire length. The motions of this wing are easy, rapid, and 

 strong : accordingly, we find the rowers fly against the wind, 

 with the head straight, and raise themselves without difiiculty 

 into the highest regions of the air, where they sport in 

 all directions. The wing of the sailers is thicker, more mas- 

 sive, and arched, and less stretched in the act of flying. The 

 first five quills, of an unequal length, are sloped from the 

 middle to the extremity. Thus that portion of the wing which 

 is most important for the purposes of flight, presents an inter- 



