156 EARLY ANNALS OF ORNITHOLOGY 
“Pale Poche”’ nested on tall trees in Brittany and Poitou 
(p. 194), perhaps near the home of his youth. 
Treating of the Sparrow-hawk (Esperuier), of which he 
gives a fairly good figure and description (pp. 121-3), Belon 
mentions its partiality for Chaffinches which descend into 
the plains in winter, and then continues :—[‘‘ When] we 
were at the mouth of the Euxine Sea, where the Straight of the 
Propontis [Marmora] commences, having climbed the highest 
hill which is there, we found a fowler taking Sparrow-hawks 
[Esperuiers] in a clever way. And as it was near the end of 
April, when all birds are nesting, it seemed strange to us to 
see so many Kites [Milans] and Sparrow-hawks coming from 
the right-hand coast of the great sea. The fowler caught them 
with great industry, and did not miss one. He took more 
than a dozen every hour. . . . Noman could easily imagine 
from whence such a multitude of Sparrow-hawks should come. 
For in the two hours’ time that we were spectators of that sport, 
we saw more than thirty taken, whence one may conjecture 
that one fowler in the space of a day might take more than a 
hundred.” (Zranslation.) Under the heading of “ Milan noir”’ 
(p. 131) Belon alludes again to the same bird-catcher, expressing 
his surprise at the Kites which came to the net in such great 
companies. Since Belon’s time, other naturalists, particularly 
Alléon and Vian, have described the Bosphorus, and remarked 
on the biannual passage of birds of prey which is to be seen 
there. “Au printemps,” write these authors, “et 4 lautomne, 
le Bosphore présente, pour les naturalistes un spectacle vraiment 
merveilleux par les migrations des oiseaux de proie; leur nombre 
dépasse tout ce que imagination peut supposer.’’* 
John Maplet, 1567.—This was an author who wrote 
“A Greene Forest, or a naturall histoire,’ almost the ea:liest 
treatise of its kind, but admittedly a compilation; Maplet 
describes twenty-eight birds, besides three which are fabulous ; 
an account of him is given in the “‘ Bibliography of British 
Ornithology.’’ Mr. Harting observes that errors are to be 
detected in the descriptions of the Falcon and Goshawk.t} 
*« Rev. et Mag. de Zoologie,” 1869, p. 258. In another place (p. 260) 
the same anthors speak of ‘‘l’agglomeration de ces handes fabuleuses 
d’oiseaux de proie.” 
+ “ Bibliotheca Accipitraria,”’ p. 10. 
