FALCONRY. The art of training falcons born in a state of freedom so that when they have flown and captured their quarry they will, instead of devouring it, give it up to their trainer. They will pursue and capture on the wing the heron. partridge, lark, rook, magpie, wild duck, pigeon. and rabbit, and in India game as large as the deer. In ancient times this sport was called hawking, a term still preserved in many places. Nowadays falconry is the term ap plied to the sport and all that pertains to it; hawking, to its actual practice out in the field. Falconry as a sport is of very ancient origin. It was practiced in Eastern countries and in central Europe long before it became established in Great Britain. In England, after the Norman Conquest, it was much indulged in by kings, nobles, and ladies; and in those days the rank of the individual could be indicated by the par ticular species of hawk carried on his wrist. Thus an earl carried a peregrine falcon. The literature of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and six teenth centuries teems with allusions to it. In the seventeenth century the sport declined; in the eighteenth century it partially revived, but again fell off about the year 1727, when the art of shooting birds on the wing became the fashion. In the present day its restoration in England, Holland, and France is attended with growing success, though no country in the world has such a variety of hawks, or such opportunities for fly ing them, as the United States, in which country and Canada several successful clubs have been organized for the encouragement of the sport. In Spanish America hawking was long esteemed as a favorite sport. In the East, from China to Morocco. falconry still maintains its old-time position as a field sport.
In falconry two distinct kinds of hawks are long-winged. or true falcons. and the short-winged. The first are represented chiefly by the gyrfalcon and peregrine; the second by the goshawk and sparrow-hawk; and though for cer tain purposes the male is superior, as a rule the females of each species are much more highly es teemed for sporting purposes, from their being larger and more powerful. 'Long-winged' hawks may also, as a rule, be distinguished from the `short-winged,' by their having a 'tooth' or notch on the upper mandible; from the second feather of the wing being either longer or as long as the third; and from their impetuous 'stoop' when they descend from a height on their prey.
The gyrfalcon (q.v.) is the largest species, but the peregrine is in greatest favor with falconers, and if taken from the nest. as is usually the case, and carefully trained, affords great sport. No hawk is fit for sporting purposes until it has undergone a careful process of training. The young hawk taken from the nest of its wild in good condition she is cuseutacd; when out of condition, seamed. :Mending the feathers arti
ficially—a necessary operation if any have been accidentally broken—is termed imping; blunting bill and talons, coping. The cadge is a frame at wood with four legs. carried by means of straps passed over the bearer's (the cadger's) shoulders, and used when there are several casts of hawks to be taken to the field. Falcons arc very pug nacious, and if not kept separate would soon kill each other. The screen or perch is a perch guarded by a falling piece of canvas to support the hawks in case of their leaping down from their block; upon this the hawks are placed at night in an apartment called the mews.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. The best of the older works Bibliography. The best of the older works are those of Turberville, published in 1575, and that of Sir John Sebright (London, 1828). For more recent treatises consult: Salvin and Brod parent is more easily trained than that which has been trapped in a wild state when at ma turity, but in either ease considerable practice is necessary before the falcon can be considered fully equipped for the sport. The following are the principal terms used in falconry: A falcon's legs from the thigh to the foot are termed arms; toes, petty singles; claws, pounces; wings, sails; tail, train; crop, gorge; lower stomach, paunch; feathers. hair, etc., ejected at the mouth, the cast ings. A young hawk from the nest is an cycss or eyas; one that can hop, but not fly well, a brancher; a nestling hawk, reared at liberty, is a hack-hawk ; a young hawk able to take game, a soar-hawk; a mature wild hawk is a haggard or blue hawk ; young hawks taken in their migra tion are passage hawks or red ha•ks—the term red being applied merely as a title of distinction between the young hawk and the eyess or nest ling. the colors of the two being in reality the same. The training of the passage hawk and haggard is termed reclainzing; fluttering is bait ing; fighting with each other, crabbing; sleeping, looking. The prey is termed the quarry. When the hawk strikes her quarry in the air and clings to it she binds; when she flies off with it she carries, when she plucks it she &plum/R. Dead game is pill. Stooping or swooping is the at of de• seending with closed wings from a height at the object of its prey. Direct flight. without soaring, is raking off ; changing from one bird to another, checking. When game flies into a cover it puts in. the hawk is molting her feathers she is mewtag ; after her first molt. she is inter mewed; with complete plumage, summed; when crick, Falconry in the British Isles (London, 1873) ; Freeman and Salvin, Falconry, Its Claims and Practice (London, 1859) ; Freeman, Practi cal Falconry (London, ISO).