The art and practice of hawking - Modern Prepper

THE BIRDS USED IN HAAYKING 39
enough for all practical purposes. A trained specimen was
kept and flown by M. Barachin in France at hares and
rabbits. It is described by Canon Tristram as a more dainty
feeder than most of the eagles ; and Mr. Hume says that in
the wild state it kills many water-fowl. The tail is barred.
The weight of the male hardly exceeds 4 lbs.
In concluding the list it must be observed that several birds
which might have been comprised in it are omitted. The
Chinese and Japanese falconers of bygone times undoubtedly
trained hawks which are figured in their books, but cannot now
be identified. Falconry is extinct in Japan, and nearly so in
China. The hawks themselves, which were once highly honoured
in their country, will probably before long be exterminated by
the ever-increasing horde of skin-collectors.
Some readers may be surprised at the exclusion from this
list of some such birds as vultures, buzzards, and even some
owls. These I have designedly omitted. I find in a work
called the Natural History Pictm^e-Book a statement by Mr.
Wood, that the kite {Mihncs regalis) "has even been trained
for purposes of falconry, and found to perform its task to
the satisfaction of its owner." Either the owner must have
been very easily pleased, or the kite must have changed very
greatly in disposition and habits within the last few centuries !
With shrikes the case is different, for it appears that they were
actually trained to fly at small birds. D'Arcussia tells us
plainly that amongst the numerous hawking establishments
kept up by Louis XIII. was one of shrikes, and relates a very
quaint story of one of these little birds owned by the king,
which would fly up to a heron on the wing and whisper in
his ear !
Several of the falconets might certainly be utilised in the
field, and amongst them especially Feilden's falcon, which is
very common, very bold, and very tame. Indeed, some of the
Malays are said to train these little hawks. Davison says that
he has seen the black-legged falconet {Hierax fringillarius)
stoop at a rock-thrush, and killed one on a partly-plucked
swallow. Other likely varieties are the white-legged and redlegged
falconets (//. melanoleums and H. ca^ridescens).
There can be little doubt that such birds as fly-catchers
could be trained and flown at butterflies ; and possibly, when
the naturalists and Cockney sportsmen and egg-collectors have
succeeded by their united efforts in exterminating all hawks,
our descendants may resort to this form of sport as their best
substitute for falconry as we now know it.