The Art and Practice of HawkingMichell, E. B. (Edward Blair)
History
The Art and Practice of Hawking
Michell, E. B. (Edward Blair)
Falconry
Arthur Newall, are all enthusiastic and successful
falconers. Colonel Ayshford Sanford, Major C. W. Thompson, of the 7th
Dragoon Guards, and the writer of these pages, have had considerable
success with merlins.
In France, the names of MM. Barachin, Sourbets, Arbel, and Belvallette
for the short-winged hawks, and MM. Pichot and Paul Gervais for other
kinds, require honourable notice; and in Russia that of the late M.
Constantine Haller will always be remembered. It is not many years
since the latter originated and carried into effect the scheme of an
International Hawking Congress, to be held near St. Petersburg. This
was attended by many Asiatic falconers, and one from England. But the
impossibility of finding suitable wild quarry in accessible places
sadly interfered with the success of the meeting; and the result was
not proportionate to the great trouble of organising it.
It will naturally be supposed that a sport so fashionable, so
prevalent, and so difficult as falconry, has been discussed at length
in many writings and in many languages. For the very extensive
literature treating of its art and practice in different parts of
the world, the reader is referred to Mr. Harting's _Bibliotheca
Accipitraria_, already mentioned, in which a full account is given of
no less than three hundred and seventy-eight works on the subject. Of
these, eighty-two are in English, and eighty-four in French. The German
publications number forty-six, the Italian thirty-eight, the Japanese
fourteen, and there are several in Spanish, Russian, Latin, Greek, and
Chinese.
The most notable works, besides those already mentioned, are the
Latin treatise written by the Emperor Frederick II.; _The Boke of St.
Albans_, by Dame Juliana Berners, 1486; the volumes published by
Turbervile in 1575, by Latham in 1615, and by Bert on the short-winged
hawks in 1635. Still more interesting are the books written in French
by Charles d'Arcussia, which date from 1598 to 1627. The nineteenth
century has produced several important works, including the small
treatise by Sir John Sebright, 1826, and the splendid illustrated
volume by Schlegel and Wulverhorst, 1853. The Badminton Library
contains half a volume on Falconry from the very able pen of Mr. Gerald
Lascelles; and the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ has an article on the
subject by Colonel Delmé Radcliffe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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