FALCONRY

The origin of this celebrated sport has given occasion to much controversy. It has been said that it was unknown to the Greeks; it is, however, described by Ctesias and Aristotle as practised in their time in India and Thrace. Martial and Apuleius present us with plain indications of the knowledge of this pastime among the Romans.In modem Kurcp«, it appears to \. been practised earliest, or at least with must ardour, in Germany: the title of the emperor, Henry the Fowler (a. b. 920), is said to be derived from an anecdote respecting his fondne for it. In the 12th century, it. was the favourite sport of nobles and knights throughout Europe; and in that which followed its rules were reduced into a system by the Emperor Frederic II. (Baibaro a), and by Demetrius, physician ■lo the Greek Emperor Palaeologus. In that court the grand alconer was an officer of distinction; and the title was borrowed from it by the western sovereigns. According to he opinion of Strutt, the sport was not known so early in England as on the Continent; yet there are traces of it as early as the 8th century. From the commencement, of the 17th, we may date its gradual decline. James I., devoted.o hunting, was no admirer of falconry, which up to his dme had been the favourite royal sport. But its final abandonment, except as the fancy of a few individuals, wasowng to the gradual improvement in fire-arms presenting far easier methods of obtaining game. Among the many curious works which exist on this subject, once so universally interesting may be mentioned the treatise De la Fauconnesie of Charles d'Esperon, Paris, 1605; the celebrated Book of St. Albaris, by the Priore Julian i Berners, 1486; Latham on Falconry. 1658; Ray's Idea of Falconry, published with Willoughby's Ornithology. The Emperor Fred eric I I.(Barb a ro a)did not disdain to give the world the re- 1596 fromsultsofhishisexperienceMS., under in the the title art, inReliquaa~ treatiselibrorumpublishedFrede-in rici II. Imp. de arte venandi cum avibus. [s. 456]