Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-08-14
I HAWKS AND FALCONS.

HAWKS AND FALCONS.
The noble sport of hawking, or fall.
conry, as it is often called, was formerly
one in which, according to the earliest
English treatise upon the subject,
''gentill men and honest persons had
greete delite." In this country it is al.
most unknown, and even i'm England
and France, where up to century age
it was in high favor, it is practiced by
but few enthusiasts.
To discover the origin of hawking
one would have to go back beyond the
beginning of history. An English OK
plorer found among some ruins in Asia
Minor sculptured stone representing
a falconer with hawk perchcd upon
his wrist, which must have been made
about seventeen hundred years before
the Christian era. In China, where al
most everything seems to have been
known thousands of years before we
moderns discovered it, hawking was
pracbced as long ago as 2OOO b. c..
Some authorities say that our old friend
Ulysses introduced the sport into Greece
after the siege of Troy, and others hold
that the Turks or the Arabs were the
hrst IN historical times to practice it.
BE that as it may. we know that AL
fred the Great was fond of hawking,
and indeed one of his biographers i'm
plies that skill in this sport was d.
vine gift, for he says Of that monarch:
"His skill in hunting and hawking, as
well as in all the other gifts of God,
was really Incompatible But to
trace hawking through the long line of
the English Kings, or to relate one
tenth of the many interesting anecdotes
connected with it, would be an almost
endless story. Let Us take its antiqu ty
for granted. and see what it was and
how it was done.
RThe words falcon" and "hawk,"
though often used without distinction,
really apply to two kinds of birds.
Both are birds of prey, and both have
characteristics very much alike The
falcons are the falcon proper. the mer-
lin and the hobby. The hawks are the
goshawk and the sparrow-hawk. The
principal distinction in form between
the two-falcon and hawks-is that the
former have long wings, which, when
closed, reach to the end of the tail,
while the hawks have short wings,
beyond which the tail projects some
distance. In their methods of taking
their prey, too, there is difference.
The falcon descends upon the object of
Its pursuit from great height and
with great rapidity; but the hawk
pursues its prey and clutches it as it
flies, seldom dropping upon it. or
"stooping," as it is called, from a
height OF more than few feet
Falcons and hawks are the only birds
of prey that can be trained for hunting,
and of these the merlin is the most
readily trained Some falconers take
the young birds from the nest, when
they are called "eycsses''; others prefer
grown birds, known rs passage
hawks" from their being caught dur
ing their passage in their annual
migration. Fhe training in each case
is much the same, for after the eyess
has been allowed to fly lat hack
that is, at Notwithstanding every day
for food, as its habit is, it has already
begun to learn its business by itself,
and in tameness it will be far ahead of
passage hawk at the time when the
actual training begins. Nevertheless,
an old hawk will sooner provide sport
for its trainer than one that has been
handled from the nest, for during it's
period of freedom it has been obliged
TO develop its instinct for hunting. and
it is this natural instinct that the
falcOner tries not to subdue, but to
encourage and guide for his own pur-
poses.
The first impulse of any one who has
caught bird alive is to out it into
cage; but in the case of hawk this is
never done. He is kept confined, but
not by "prison bars As soon as
taken he is blindfolded with a hood"
made of soft leather, and fitting closely
over the head, an opening being left for
the beak. This is 10 render him quiet,
for, being unable to see. he is not so
likely to fight for liberty. Then
"jesses' Chin leather thongs) are
fastened to his legs, jesses being used
for the same purpose as the collar on
dog, while the ''leash'' Ca strap about
four feet long, corresponds to dogs |
chain.
The hawk-house should be an airy
though not draughty room, and it |
should be quite dry. The accommoda-
tons for the bird are of two sorts-a
block and a perch. The former is |
often made of turf. and is formed by |
placing two thick sods one upon the |
other, and passing stick through them
SO that it projects few inches on each |
side. To the projecting ends is fastened
the LEASH thus securely confining
the bird. The perch is generally about
four feet long and three feet above the
ground. 1t is strongly secured. for the
weight of hawk is considerable, ard |
when it flutters off its perch it exercises
no little force. A simple bat ingenious
arrangement is used to assist the hawk |
in regaining his position when it has
f1ut.ered off the perch. This is cur
tain of coarse canvas hanging from the
pole rs from curtain rod, up which |
the bird can climb to his place, and
without which, having lost his hold. he
would surely hang, head downward,
until at last released by death.
But it must not be supposed that the
noble falcon passes all his leisure time
indoors; on the contrary, it is neces-
sary for his health that he should be
Out-Of-dOors as much as possible, and
in q. convenient place both block and
perch are provided for his occupation
in fine weather. When the bird has be- |
come tame enough to take his food reg
ularly and freely, and has grown to
know his master, the early stages of his
training may be begun. His hood is
then removed, in order that he may see
the quarry" though the jcsses and
leash will be required until he is suffi-
GENTLY well trained to be allowed to fly
ct large.