FALCONRY, or HAWKING, the employ ment of falcons in the chase. This sport is of Oriental origin, and has been practised in the East since before the days of any record — in China at least 2,000 years before Christ; and it was probably followed at that date all over Asia and down into the Nile Valley, for falconers with their are depicted in some of the oldest Egyptian mural paintings. The sport spread over Europe with the Roman domina tion, but seems not to have been introduced into England until the 9th century. Many laws and social customs regulated this pursuit in Great Britain and many terms and phrases remain in the language as an inheritance from the art and etiquette of this most elegant form of the chase. Thus the square frame on which hawks were carried to the field was named a "cadge," and the servant who bore it a "cadger"; and a "cast)) of hawks meant two taken on a chase together. To "man a hawk" was to tame it; and one so thoroughly trained as to be flown with young ones to show them how to work was called a "make A hawk was said to when molting, and to "plume" when she pulls off feathers. A female of any species, but es pecially of the peregrine, is a "falcon"; a male a utiercel"; one caught wild a "haggard" or "passage hawk"; one reared from the nest an "eyas," and a young one is a "red hawk"; while a falcon's nest is an "eyry.° All the actions of a hawk in its work are named. A hawk "stoops" when she descends upon the "quarry" (prey) with closed wings, to kill it by a stroke of the beak; she "binds" when she seizes large prey in the air and clings to it in its fall, or "trusses" when the prey is of small size. A hawk is said to "clutch" when (as do short-winged hawks) she seizes it in her feet; to °carry," when she tries to fly away with the prey; to "check" when she flies at a bird other than the one intended for her; to "foot well" when she kills success fully; to "make her point" when she rises and hovers over some quarry which has escaped to cover, as in thick hedges; to "ring" when she rises spirally in the air; to "take the air" when she tnes to get above the fleeing quarry; to "wait on" when she hovers above her master at a certain "pitch" (height), waiting for quarry to be flushed. aSeeling" is closing the eyes with a fine thread (no longer done) ; "tmping,n mend ing broken feathers "mantling," stretching out the wings or one wing and a leg; and "jaralcn means keen, or in good condition for work.
The extensive agricultural changes which oc curred in England during the 17th century, causing the enclosure and improvement of waste lands; the growth of towns and industry; the altered temper of the people preceding and dur ing the Protectorate; and most of all the intro duction of firearms, followed by the sports of shooting and the consequent preserving of game — all tended toward the decline of falconry, both in England and on the Continent; and game-keepers and peasants began to shoot as "vermin* the grand and valuable birds upon which their forefathers had doted. Neverthe less the sport is still followed by fanciers who keep alive its traditions.
The hawks used in falconry are all true falcons, and nearly or quite the whole list have at some time or place been regularly trained, except in the United States, although here the best of material exists, in our duck-hawk (the peregrine), pigeon, and sparrow-hawks, south western prairie-falcon and others. A few clubs
here and there have flown their hawks, but the sport shows little sign of becoming general in North America. It is more frequent in Central and South America. In North Africa and the Orient the sport flourishes as much as formerly; and there eagles are often employed and quarry as large as gazelles and bustards is struck down.
Falconers divide their birds into "long winged" or "dark-eyed" hawks, and "short winged" or "yellow-eyed" hawks. The first class contains the true falcons, of which the great jerfalcon (q.v) was in old times reserved for royalty, the peregrine for an earl and the others for the nobility; hence these were known as while the goshawk, kestrel, etc., on account of the inferiority of their masters as well as of their own powers, were styled "ig noble." Hawks are taken for training either as nest lings or when full-grown. They are trained by being hooded, made to wear bands of leather ("jesses") about the legs, to which are at tached evarvels° (rings, sometimes carrying bells hung by and a swiveled "leash" ; and gradually are accustomed, at first in complete darkness, to being fed and handled, and later to feeding in the light and among spectators, and finally to take first live birds thrown toward it and finally wild quarry. During this process young birds are much at liberty and are then said to be "flying at hack.* The sport was one in which women as well as men of all classes might indulge, going afield on foot and alone, or . in mounted cavalcades, and often during medieval times with royal pomp. The hawks, hooded, were carried by servants on frames suspended from their shoulders, but each sportsman was likely to hold a favorite bird upon his gauntleted wrist — in Europe on the left wrist, in the Orient on the right. Dogs, especially small greyhounds and pointers, were likely to accompany the falconer and were put to use in flushing birds, starting hares and the like. When the hunting scene was reached the hawks were prepared for flight, and some were freed to "wait on" until quarry was sighted; but others, trained differently. were kept hooded until the falconer himself started or perceived the game, when they were unhooded and sent after it. The sportsmen then followed, watched the chase and recovered prey and hawk as well as they could. Good falcons show a keen interest and great intelligence in their work.
Many books describe both the sport and the falcons in great detail. One of the best of the early works is 'The Booke of Faulconrie or Hawking,) by Turberville (1575). Recent Brit ish authors of repute are Brodrick, Salvia, Freeman ('Practical Falconry,' 1869), and J. E.
Harting ((Hints on the Management of Hawks,' 1884). The latest general work is and Falconry,' by Cox and Lascelles, in the Badminton Library, 1892. Consult also the ar ticle "An Ancient Sport in the New World," in Outing for March 1914.