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Falcon and Hawk Pictures
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Information About Falconry
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Falconry,
The training of falcons or hawks to capture wild game or fowl for the hunter is one of the oldest hunting sports known to man. It was practiced in China before 2000 BC and in Japan, India, Persia, and other Asian countries as early as 600 BC.
Falconry is also the subject of some of the oldest Egyptian wall paintings. Falconry was introduced by the Romans into parts of Europe conquered by them, and from the European continent the sport was introduced to England in the second half of the 9th century AD. After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, falconry was extremely popular with English royalty and nobility. In those days, the type of hawk or falcon an Englishman carried on his wrist when he went hawking marked his rank. Thus, a king carried the gyrfalcon, an earl the peregrine, a yeoman the goshawk, a priest the sparrow hawk, and a servant the kestrel.
The sport remained highly popular in Europe until the first half of the 17th century, when interest in it began to decline. It is widely pursued in Latin America and has enthusiasts in continental Europe, the United States, and Canada. In many parts of the Middle East, the Orient, and West Africa it has never lost its popularity.
In modern falconry two types of hawks are used: the long-winged or dark-eyed hawks and the short-winged or yellow-eyed hawks. The first type includes the gyrfalcon and the peregrine; the second, the goshawk and the sparrow hawk. Different hawks hunt different kinds of quarry. Thus, tiercels (the male of the peregrine) are used for snipe and partridge; gyrfalcons for heron and rook; and goshawks for rabbit, hare, and pheasant and other wild fowl. In general, the female of each species is more highly valued for hunting because it is larger and more powerful.
Hawking may be practiced by individuals or by groups on foot or horseback. When several hawks are to be carried to the field, the birds, hooded so they will not fly at anything before the quarry is flushed or started, are carried in a cadge, a frame of wood with four legs, carried by means of straps passed over the shoulders of the bearer; the bearers are known as cadgers. Dogs, such as pointers and small greyhounds, are used to flush birds or to start game.
Falconers have two ways of releasing hawks for the pursuit. One class of hawks is released when the hunting field is reached, whereupon they fly high and "wait on" the quarry, that is, hover in the air until the quarry appears, a procedure for which they are trained. Other hawks are kept hooded in the cadge or on the wrist of the falconer until the falconer, with or without the aid of dogs, starts the quarry, whereupon the hood is removed and the falcon flies in pursuit. The hawk then swoops down upon its prey from a point high above it. Plummeting with terrific speed, the hawk strikes a blow so violent as, often, to kill it at once, with claws or beak.
The prey falls to the ground, and the hunter comes up and takes possession or, if the hawk clings to it, takes it from the hunting bird. A plan often used is to employ a dog to point the hunted game and then to release or cast off the hawk when the dog points; after the hawk has flown to a high point, called its pitch, the falconer flushes or starts the quarry.
The falconer has a heavy gauntlet for the left, or hawk, hand, and sometimes a protective mask. Falcons are pugnacious, and if not kept separate will kill each other. For this reason at night they are kept in an apartment called a mews and are so tethered that they cannot get at one another; during the day when not hunting they are tethered to blocks, usually out of doors.
Vocabulary
Falconry is a very old sport and uses a special vocabulary that has been developed over the centuries. Among the terms used to describe the hawk itself are pounces, for claws; sails, for wings; and pannel, for the lower stomach. An eyas is a young hawk taken from the nest; it is easier to obtain and train than a grown wild bird. A haggard, or blue hawk or passage hawk, is a mature wild bird, better at hunting than an eyas but harder to train and more frequently lost in the course of hunting. An aerie (or eyrie) is a falcon's nest. When a hawk molts, it is said to be mewing; after the bird's first molt it is intermewed. Mending a hawk's broken feathers is called imping, and blunting its bill or talons is coping.
The motions of the falcon in pursuit of its quarry also have special designations. Thus, a hawk stoops when, with wings closed, it dives upon its prey. It binds when it clings to the prey and clutches when it seizes the quarry in its claws. Other activities of hunting falcons are bating, or fluttering the wings; crabbing, or fighting among themselves; and jonking, or sleeping.
Equipment essential to the training of hawks includes jesses, or leg straps, and rufters, or leather eye hoods..
