HAWKING-BIRDS. 
Antiquity oe Hawking. — To what country or people the 
world is indebted for the invention of this renowned pastime 
it is impossible to tell. Ancient historians, with that ambiguity 
for which they are sometimes remarkable, spread their arms, 
as it were, and point, with either hand, to the east and the 
west, and, still extending them, take half a turn on their heels, 
and point to the north and the south as being, without doubt, 
the region where the sport took root. There can be little 
doubt that, if not the very first, the eastern quarter of the 
globe was among the earliest to cherish the hawk for its special 
attributes. Marco Polo, who went on an embassy to China 
from Pope Gregory X., relates that he found hawking to be a 
fashionable sport in the vast empire of Kublai Ivhan, and 
describes with great particularity his celestial majesty’s retinue 
of falconers, and his large establishment of falcons, pigeons, 
pheasants, and other birds used in the sport. 
Bishop Stanley, writing on the subject, says, “ About two 
thousand years ago, ancient writers speak of hawking as a 
common sport. People used to go out into the marshy 
grounds, and beat amongst the reeds and bushes for small 
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