THE HAWK TRIBE. 
123 
that when the hard 
winters set in, the 
birds, if not con- 
fined, take wing, 
and are never seen 
again. In China, 
it is a favourite 
amusement with 
some of the Man- 
darins, or great 
people, to hawk 
for butterflies and 
other large insects, 
with birds trained 
for that particular 
sport. In India, 
the Goshawk, and 
hovering over the hunters’ heads, and when deer or other game 
starts up, they dart down, as has been before stated, and fix 
their claws upon its head ; and thus bewilder it, till the pur- 
suers come up. 
Near Tripoli, in Africa, on the wide plains, Bustards are 
very common, — a large bird, once plentiful in some parts of 
England, though now, in consequence of the increase of popu- 
lation, and enclosure of the waste tracts of land, no longer to 
he seen; they are larger than Turkeys, and though their 
wings are so short as to he of little use to them in flying, 
they enable them to use their long legs with a speed equal to 
that of a greyhound, and afford excellent sport when pursued 
by Hawks ; and Bustard-coursing is therefore a favourite 
amusement with persons of rank in that country. Hawking, 
however, to any extent, is at the present day nothing, com- 
pared with what it was a few hundred years ago in England, 
and many parts of Europe, when it was followed with an 
eagerness and a degree of expense far beyond the cost of fox- 
hunting, racing, or any of the field sports of modern times. 
Of the value and importance attached to birds of the right 
breed (for all Hawks were far from being equally good), we 
The Ealcon. 
two other species, are taught to keep 
