The Bessemer indicator., 1893-04-08
GREAT TRAINED BIRDS.
A REVIVAL OF FALcONRY IN
MANY COUNTRIES.
The Gre"t Eagles of Tartary and the
Lammer-GeJers of styria-An Ex-
citing Hunt with Falcons
In Hungary.

A recent revival of falconry in the
Hungarian hunting castle of Kis-
Martony was pronounced n success by
all the leading sportsmen of the
Austrian empire, and Captain George
Alcott, who spent an afternoon with
an Afghan hunter, declares that he
never had as much fun in any other
half day OF his life.
Tho trained hawks caught rabbits
and Inarmots "a kind of gopher) as
easily as birds and tackled big
black cock. who beat of his first
assailant, but finally succumbed to
the combined attack of the two
winged bulldogs. The only difficulty
seemed to be in getting them to catch
sight OF the desired game, but that
problem once solved. distance or
the speed and cunning of their quarry
made very little difference in the
eventual result II ar abbit "doubled, >"
as our hunters call it-i. G., ran zig
gag and in tricky circles, one of the
hawks kept at the heels of the trick
ster to prevent him from disappear
ing in thickct of heather shrubs.
while hawk No. rose to u height of
q hundred yards, where he hovered,
ready to dart down ut the first favor
able opportunity. Pigeons now and
then escaped by the capriciousness of
their flight, but straight flying birds,
like grouse and ducks. had no chance
whatever, writes T. l., Oswald in the
San Francisco Chronicle.
Tho buul-u nyn,.,aD.
couple of greyhounds would run
down pig, and generally knocked
them out of time at the first plunge
with tho same unerring instinct in
striking vital part that enables a
panther to kill deer at the first
spring.
The hawks chosen for that sport
spread about four feet from tin to
tip OF their outstretched wings and
are less easy to manage than the GER
falcons. but the Turtars of Western
China go oven farther and contrive to
train eagles that help them to cap
ture the largest antelopcs of their
tablelands. The Saigai buck, crca-
ture nearly as large j an elk, cannot
be overpoworcd at once, but the
hunting eagle wears it out by clutch
ing its rump and then spreading his
wings, thus obliging the buck to con-
, tinue its tight under the disadvnnt-
age of a man trying fS;HGs to run with. apr
open parachute or an old-fash shioned
umbrella
Hunting eagles were also kept by
the Mexican grandees, and the vice.
roy OF Tiascalla presented Cortez
with trained harpy eagle, known rs
.El principe del ayre"-the "princc
of the air" and valued at price that
would have purchased six slaves.
In the epic "Araucana n rhymed
chronicle OF the conquest OF Chilli.
there is an account OF "hunting vul-
ture" which may refer to the condor
OF the Southern Andes. vulture
only in appearance, but u bold and
aggressive bird with decided pref
erence for fresh meat when it can be
procured. A trained pet OF that sort
would support a whole family in "a
country 80 well stocked with game as
the highlands of Chilli
A lammcr-geyer. the old world
relative of the condor, was SUCCESS
fully trained by the Forster Althoier,
the overseer of an imperial game pre-
serve near Judenburg in Styria. Its
owner has taught it TO take air-line
trips to the highland lakes where
ducks can always be found ut certain
times OF the year. and estimates that
the food saves him each year from %
to b ilorins worth of shot and
powder.
There was time when the aristo-
Gratis of Western Europe did not
think life worth living without an as
sortmcnt of trained falcons Louis
XII OF France was considered tho
greatest miser who ever disgraced u