HAWKING-BIRDS. 
For the Prince the Falcon gentle, or the Tercel gentle. 
For the Duke the Pock Falcon. 
For the Earl the Peregrine Falcon. 
For the Baron the Bastard Falcon. 
For the Knight the Sacre and the Secret. 
For the Esquire the Harrier and the Lammeret. 
For the Lady the Merlin. 
For the Young Man the Hobby. 
For the Yeoman the Goshawk. 
For the Poor Man the Tercel. 
For the Priest the Sparrow-hawk. 
For the Holy-water Clerk, .the Musket. 
For the Knave, or Servant, .the Kestrel.” 
I trust that I have shown, with tolerable clearness, that if 
ever a creature was entitled to the appellation of “ Home Pet,” 
the hawk is that creature, and as such claims a place in this 
volume. Without doubt it is a “ pet ” of a bygone age. Ho 
one would care to see the sport of hawking revived ; indeed, to 
re-establish it in all its ancient glory would be impossible. 
Fancy the gentle Lady Daffodil riding through Rotten Row 
with her delicate hand thrust into a glove clumsy enough for 
a ditcher, and with a coarse and savage bird perched on her 
wrist ! or comfortable old Mr. Pearlash, the city merchant, 
who lives at Clapham ; fancy the staid begaitered old gentle- 
man hurrying to the Common, accompanied by Mrs. Pearlash ; 
he with his goshawk and she with her merlin. It was all very 
well in those rough and, tough times, and without doubt such 
“ pets ” accorded well with the rude and unrefined “ homes ” 
of the period ; but in these days it would be quite out of the 
question. Even her Majesty, although she still counts among 
the servants of her household a “ grand falconer,” would pro- 
bably be unable to distinguish a ger -falcon from a tercel. 
Still, the hawk family were without doubt “ home pets ” with 
our forefathers, and a description of the principal members 
of the hawk family, together with their training, management, 
and education, will not here be out of place. 
Varieties oe the Hawk Tribe. — When Linnaeus classified 
the various birds of prey, he included, under the denomination 
Falco, the eagles. Although, in the course of their existence, 
the falcons undergo such alteration of plumage as to make it 
difficult to distinguish between them with exactitude, still 
these generic characters are such as to be sufficiently definite 
and precise. The beak of the hawk is curved from the base ; 
whereas that of the eagle is straight for 'at least two -thirds of 
its entire length, and terminating with a sudden hook. Again, 
the wing-feathers of the eagle family differ from those of their 
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