PRACTICAL FALCONRY. 
* 
CHAPTER I. 
PRELIMINARIES. 
Wuen, at the end of May last, I said “Good-bye” to Falconry as 
a writer on the subject, I was not prepared for the demand which 
was afterwards made for a practical treatise. That demand, how- 
ever, induced me to appear again, for “ positively the last time ;’’ 
and I now offer my readers in a volume of “ Tae FreLp Lisrary ” 
what I lately offered them in the paper itself, some few, but I trust 
thoroughly practical, chapters on the Art of Falconry. 
I make no further preface, for my object is to keep entirely to the 
subject before me, beginning at the beginning, placing myself as 
much as possible in the position of a person who knows nothing of 
falconry, and trying to present such a treatise to my readers as I 
desired many years ago to obtain for myself. 
Let me suppose, in the first place, that 2 man has some sort of 
floating feeling that he should like to see the falconry which he has 
read of in the “‘ Waverley Novels,” in some old book of British sports, 
or has heard of, for some years, as being really now carried out in 
this country. Let me suppose, further, that he is inclined to take up 
the matter himself. 
He will want a tutor; and the first questions probably which he 
will ask are, “‘ What sort of hawks should I have, and where can I 
got them?” 
I answer—What is the character of your country ?—what expense 
do you care to go to P—have you a manor of your own; or, if not, 
B 
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