Dissertation on Birds of Prey and the Sport - the Falconry Heritage ...

If a falcon sees the dead body of a man (so it is said), it always heaps earth upon
the unburied corpse.. .and will never touch the body. And it even refrains from
drinking if a solitary man is engaged in leading off water into a channel, feeling
sure that it will cause damage to the man who so labours if it purloins the water
which he needs. But if several men are engaged in irrigating, it sees that the
stream is abundant and takes its share from the loving-cup, so to speak, which
they offer, and is glad to drink.I4
Hawks also show virtue and willingness to become tame and civilized:
When well treated they are good at remembering kindness. They are caught by
pandering to their appetites, and when this has rendered them tame they remain
thereafter perfectly gentle: they would never set upon their benefactors once they
have been freed from their congenital and natural temper."
For the sake of contrast, both with this last text and with later, medieval views of
falcons, in which falcons are not only admirable but symbols of noble love, it is worth
looking at Ovid's Ars Arnatoria. In Ovid's work the image of love as a hunt is well-
developed: in advising those who wish to chase women, he tells them to figure out where
they are, as hunters know where to look for prey:
Scit bene venator cervis ubi retia tendat,
Scit bene qua fredens valle moretur aper;
Aucupibus noti fi-utices; qui sustenit hamos,
Novit quae multo pisce natentur aquae16
He uses similar imagery when telling women, in book 111, how to attract men:
l4 Ibid., 11. 42.
l5 Ibid., IV. 44.
Omnibus illa locis maneat studiosa placendi,
Et curam tota mente decoris agat.
Casus ubique valet; simper tibi pendeat hamus:
Quo minime credas gurgite, piscis erit.
Saepe canes fi-ustra nemorosis montibus errant,
Inque plagam nu110 cervus agente venit."
l6 Ovid, The Art of Love, I. 45-48 (London; Cambridge, MA: William Heineman Ltd, Harvard University
Press, 1957), translation of J. H. Mozley: "Well knows the hunter where to spread his nets for the stag, well
knows he in what glen the boar with gnashing teeth abides; familiar are the copses to fowlers, and he who
holds the hook is aware in what waters many fish are swimming."
" Ibid., 111. 423-428. "Let her that is eager to please be always everywhere, and give all her mind's
attention to her charms. Chance everywhere has power; ever let your hook be hanging; where you least