HAWKS. 
171 
long as the chickens were young and helpless, hut 
gradually slackened as they grew older ; the habits 
of affection, however, never entirely ceased, for the 
chickens after they became full-grown fowls, re- 
mained with it, and all lived together in the same 
garden in perfect harmony. A single instance of so 
extraordinary a deviation from the general habits of 
birds, might have been received with hesitation, hut 
when corroborated by similar occurrences, on record 
in other places, its truth scarcely admits of a doubt. 
We have heard, indeed, a still more extraordinary 
circumstance, namely, that of an Eagle, at an inn 
at Uxbridge, which also hatched and brought up 
several broods of poultry. 
The attention of the Turks and Egyptians to cer- 
tain Hawks, most probably arises from the respect paid 
to them in ancient times, when the Hawk was held 
sacred, and when even accidentally to kill one, was 
punished by a heavy fine ; and designedly to deprive 
it of life was a capital offence, and the culprit suf- 
fered death. Various reasons are mentioned by old 
writers for this veneration. Thus the Eagle was wor- 
shipped, as a royal bird, and the favourite of their 
god Jupiter. The Hawks were worshipped for dif- 
ferent reasons ; some because they were supposed to 
destroy scorpions, serpents, and divers dangerous 
reptiles. Others again were deified, or held sacred, 
because the priests, or augurs, as they were called, 
made use of their swift flight in their divinations, 
or pretended foretellings of events which were to 
happen. And others, again, looked upon them as 
sacred, from an ancient tradition, stating, that once 
upon a time, a hook, hound about with a scarlet 
