582 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



the nobility, from the monarch to the lowest courtier, were passion- 

 ately fond of hawking — the name specially applied to it. Sovereigns 

 and noblemen expended princely sums upon it. The gift of a few fine 

 falcons was considered a magnificent present. The kings of France 

 solemnly received twelve falcons every year from the grand-master of 

 the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. They were entrusted on their 

 voyage to a French knight, to whom the monarch accorded, under 

 the name of a present, a sum of .£3,000, and the expenses of his 

 journey. 



Gentlemen, and even ladies, of the Middle Ages, seldom made 

 their appearance in public without a falcon on their wrists ; and this 

 example was followed by bishops and abbots — they entered the 

 churches supporting their favourite birds, depositing them on the 

 steps of the altar during mass. Noblemen on public ceremonies 

 proudly held their falcons in one hand and the hilt of their sword 

 in the other. 



Louis XIII. was devoted to falconry. Daily he went hawking 

 before going to church ; and his favourite, Albert de Luynes, owed 

 his fortune to his great skill in this science. Charles d'Arcussia of 

 Capri, Lord of Esparron, published, in 1615, a "Treatise on Fal- 

 conry," in which it is stated that the Baron de la Chastaigneraie, 

 chief falconer of France under Louis XIII. , purchased his office at 

 a cost of 5,000 crowns. He had the direction of 140 birds, which 

 required the assistance of a staff of 100 men for their care. 



This kind of sport has almost totally disappeared ; a revival of it 

 in England and Germany took place, but only with moderate success. 

 For this purpose a society, called the " Hawking Club," meets to- 

 gether annually in a dependency of the royal castle of Loo, under 

 the presidency of the King of the Netherlands, to hawk herons. 

 From 100 to 200 of these birds in the space of two months have 

 been taken ; but this is only a feeble resuscitation of an institution 

 which once flourished in great grandeur. 



Falcons were formerly divided into birds of the noble and inferior 

 grades. The former comprehended the gyrfalcon, the falcon, the 

 hobby, the merlin, and the kestrel ; the latter, the goshawk, and 

 sparrow-hawk. 



The falcons destined for training must be captured young. Those 

 that have been providing their own food, and have nearly reached 

 maturity, are taken with a lure, which is generally a pigeon. Young 

 birds which have just left the nest are called eyases; when rather 

 more mature, branchers; that is to say, birds about three months old, 

 strong enough to hop from branch to branch, but incapable of flying 



