FALCONRY, THE SPORT OF KINGS 



431 



War has made a heavy toll on both the 

 personnel and the support of the sport. 



Within the last twenty years there had 

 been a great renascence of amateur fal- 

 conry among the English, and some rather 

 successful attempts have been made in 

 America, particularly in the Genesee Val- 

 ley, New York. 



The great expense of maintaining the 

 birds, due to the scarcity of experienced 

 trainers and catchers, and the difficulties 

 of forwarding so rangy a sport in the 

 settled conditions of most of our eastern 

 country have made it impossible, however, 

 to achieve any real success in America 

 and the growing sentiment against kill- 

 ing all but a few species of game-birds 

 will probably act as a further deterrent. 

 Still, there are several common birds 

 which are recognized as game that would 

 make admirable quarry for the peregrine. 

 notably the quail of our Atlantic States 

 and the sharp-tailed grouse of the north- 

 ern prairies. The native wild goshawk 

 is already the chief problem of all the 

 grouse of our northern wooded section. 



HAWKS ARE AMONG THE SHYEST OE 

 CREATURES 



While it is true that in training hawks 

 to hunt, as in all other animal training, 

 advantage is taken of the natural pro- 

 clivities of the creature in hand, neverthe- 

 less, it seems at first glance that these 

 vigorous and intrepid birds are taught to 

 go almost directly against their instincts. 

 First of all, being among the wildest and 

 shyest of creatures, they must be taught 

 that man, instead of being their worst 

 enemy, is really their best friend. Then 

 the rest becomes comparatively easy, if 

 no mistakes are made. But any one of 

 hundreds of possible errors may undo 

 weeks of patient and successful labor. 



Then, too, since different kinds of game 

 must be hunted at different times of the 

 year and in different kinds of cover, 

 either the same hawk must be trained 

 first for one type of work and later for 

 something entirely different, or different 

 kinds of hawks must be used. 



Of the hundreds of kinds of hawks, 

 only certain ones possess the combina- 

 tion of qualities necessary for this beauti- 

 ful and romantic sport. A hawk must 

 be at once kind and fierce ; it must be 



able to stand the changes of climate of 

 its owner's country ; it must be strong 

 enough and swift enough to overtake and 

 strike down its quarry, and intelligent 

 enough to be able to unlearn much of its 

 native knowledge. These qualities are 

 possessed by only about a dozen species, 

 belonging to two groups or genera — the 

 true falcons, of the genus Falco. or long- 

 winged hawks, and the short-winged 

 group of forest-hawks known as "Ac- 

 cipiters." Only two of the latter are used, 

 the goshawk and the European sparrow- 

 hawk. (The bird known in America as 

 sparrowhawk is a small falcon which 

 feeds principally on insects and is useless 

 for hunting.) 



THE PEREGRINE IS THE MOST COSMO- 

 POLITAN OF BIRDS 



The peregrine is the only falcon proper 

 found all over the world. There is no 

 other bird with such a cosmopolitan 

 range. It is found on both sides of the 

 Equator, throughout the entire world, 

 nearly to the Arctic and Antarctic circles. 

 It is natural, then, that this should be the 

 falcon of falcons and known to all ages 

 of man as a tractable and capable help in 

 his search for food ; for falconry was at 

 first a very practical and even sordid pur- 

 suit, only later — much later — becoming 

 the sport of the privileged classes. 



A peculiar set of traditions and an 

 equally picturesque language have be- 

 come inseparably attached to the art of 

 falconry ; and it is only fair to the Scotch. 

 who, in their conservatism, have been 

 responsible for the colorful language of 

 golf, to give them the credit for preserv- 

 ing the romantic terminology of falconry. 

 It was in Scotland that the art was per- 

 petuated after it had languished over 

 most of Europe. 



Ancient historv is eloquent with the in- 

 fluence of the noble sport of hawking. 

 the history of medieval Europe is richly 

 colored with it. sixteenth and seventeenth 

 century literature fairly abounds in pas- 

 sages concerning it, and the language of 

 the day was so tinctured with the jargon 

 of the hawkers that it is fair to conclude 

 that, before men had knowledge of gun- 

 powder and the fowling-piece, hawking 

 was such a general practice as to be the 

 principal means of obtaining wild game. 



