366 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



instance (Inf. iii. 117), that the damned souls rush to Charon, 

 when he signs to them (" come augel per suo richiamo "), like a 

 Falcon to his call. That is the exact meaning of " richiamo," the 

 sound made by the falconer, which from its earliest training the 

 bird associates with the idea of food ; it is sometimes used as the 

 equivalent of " logoro," lure (Purg. xix. 62) ; the German Feders- 

 piel, made of leather with feathers attached, from which the Hawk 

 is fed, that it may learn to connect with it the sight of its food, and 

 may come back to its master if it found no bird. From what 

 Buti says, occasionally actual birds were used for the lure, dif- 

 fering according to the kind of Hawk employed. 



Falconers recognized two kinds of birds. First, the long- 

 winged or proper Falcons, of which class the Gyrfalcon and the 

 Peregrine {Falco peregriniis) were the ordinary representatives. 

 Of these the Gyrfalcon, a big bird, inhabits Northern Europe 

 only, and does not seem to have been imported till later into 

 Italy for sporting purposes; while the Peregrine is the Falcon of 

 Dante that figures in many similes. The second class consisted 

 of the short-winged, and were generally represented by the Gos- 

 hawk {Falco gentilis)* and the Sparrow-Hawk {Sparvius)A Dante 

 knew both. He speaks of the two guardian angels of the quiet 

 valley in the "Purgatorio " as " astore " (Purg. viii. 104), which is 

 the Goshawk, and he has much to say of the "sparviere" (epervier). 

 He notices it with regard to the common custom of the short- 

 winged grappling their quarry instead of striking it dead, for, in 

 speaking of the two demons fighting (Inf. xxii. 139), he says 



that one 



' ' Fu bene sparviere grifagno 

 Ad artigliar ben lui." 



He also alludes to a method of taming the wild Sparrow-Hawk, 

 for the envious in Purgatory expiate their sins by having their 

 eyelids fastened together with iron wire (Purg. xiii. 71), "as is 

 done to a wild Sparrow-Hawk, because it will not keep still" — a 

 mode of treatment recommended by Frederic. 



To turn to the sport itself. We have a picture of the process 

 (Par. xix. 34). The start : the Hawk, on having his hood re- 

 moved, shakes his head and flaps his wings (coU' ali si applauda), 

 showing his eagerness, and making himself fine. Next (Purg. 

 xix. 64) he surveys his feet, then turns him to the call (of the 

 * Astur palumbarins, f Accipiter nisus. 



