16 ; FALCONRY. 
for one year and one day, together with a fine, at the king’s 
pleasure.” Any person finding a hawk was to carry it to 
the sheriff of the county, who was immediately to cause a 
proclamation to be made in all the principal towns in the 
county (each falcon had a ring put around his leg with the 
owner's name engraved on it, and a small bell was sus- 
pended from the neck of the bird so that it might be discov- 
ered when lost in the chase). Any attempt of the finder to 
conceal or appropriate it was to be punished the same as 
stealing. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the imprison- 
ment was reduced to three months, but the culprit was to 
lie in prison "till he got security for his good behavior for 
seven years." 
The dignitaries of the church even indulged in the sport, 
and the poet Chaucer represents them as being more learned 
in hunting than in divinity. During the middle ages a Eu- 
ropean showed his rank by having a hawk on his fist, and 
when he died the bird was generally carved on his monu- 
ment. Among the Welsh priuces the king's faleoner was 
the fourth officer in the state; yet he was "forbidden to 
take more than three drams of beer from his horn lest he 
should get drunk and neglect his duty." The grand fal- 
coner of France had four thousand florins per annum, was 
ullowed three hundred hawks, and had fifty gentlemen and 
fifty attendants to follow him. He rode out with the King 
on all great occasions. 
The prices paid for falcons were enormous. Sir Thomas 
Monson paid five thousand dollars for a pair. In Persia the 
gerfalcon of Russia is not allowed to be kept by any per- - 
son except the king, and each bird is valued at fifteen hun- 
dred crowns. Hawks were sent as royal tokens from kings 
to kings, and formed a customary present from the sovereign 
. to the embassador of a friendly power. In more ancient 
times they were bequeathed as valuable and honorable lega- 
cies, with the injunction, **that the legatee should behave 
kindly and dutifully by the said bird." 
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