JALGONRY 

 Col. E. DelmS Radcliff, 

 Author of PalGonri Q In Indifl . 

 Encyclopedia Brittanica, ninth ed. 1890, 



The art of employing falcons and hawks in the chase, -- 

 a sport the practice of which is generally termed hawking. 

 Falconry was for many ages of the Old World's history one 

 of the principal sports. Probably it may be considered as 

 having been always a pure sport as it is at the present day; 

 for even in the, rudest times man must have been possessed 

 of means and appliances for the capture of wild birds and 

 beasts more effectual than the agency of hawks, notwithstand- 

 ing the high state of efficiency to which, as we may still 

 see, well trained hawks may be brought. The antiquity of 

 falconry is very great. It seems impossible to fix the 

 exact period of it's first appearance. There appears to 

 be little doubt but that ft was practiced in Asia at a very 

 remote period, for which we have the concurrent testimony 

 of various Chinese and Japanese works, some of the latter 

 being most quaintly and yet spiritedly illustrated. It 

 appears to have been known in China some 200 years before 

 Christ, and the records of king Wen Wang, who reigned over 

 a province of that country in 68 B.C., prove that the art 

 was at that time in very higji favor. In Japan it seems to 

 have been known at least 600 B.C., and probably at an equally 

 early date in India, Arabia, Persia, and Syria. Sir A. H. 

 IBtayard, as we learn from his work on Ninevah and Babylon , 

 considers that in a bas-relief found by him in the ruins of 

 Khorsabad "there appeared to be a falconer bearing a hawk 

 on his wrist," from which it would appear to have been known 

 there some 1700 years B.C.. In all the above mentioned 

 covmtries of Asia it is practiced at the present day. 



Little is known of the early history of falconry in 

 Africa, but from very ancient Egyptian carvings and drawings 

 it seems to have been known there many ages ago. It was 

 probably in vogue in the cotmtries of Morocco, Oran, Algiers, 

 Tunis, and Egypt. The older writers on falconry, english 

 and continental, often mention Barbary and Tunisian falcons. 

 It is still practiced in Africa; the present writer has 

 visited two hawking establishments in Egypt. 



Perhaps the oldest records of falconry in Europe are 

 supplied by the writings of Pliny, Aristotle, and Martial. 

 Although their notices of the sport are slight and somewhat 

 vague, yet they are quite sufficient to show that it was 

 practiced in their days — between the years 384 B.C. and 40 

 A.D.. It WRS probably Introduced to the continent about 

 860 A.D., and from that time down to the middle of the 17th 

 century falconry was followed with an ardor that perhaps no 

 sport in our coruatry has ever called forth, not even our 



