page_title: Hunting in Russia
section_title: Hunting birds
hierarchical_section_title: Hunting in Russia / Hunting birds
caption_attribution_description: Alexandra Chetverikova and Teresa Otto on hunting.
context_page_description: Hunting in Russia has an old tradition in terms of indigenous people, while the original features of state and princely economy were farming and cattle-breeding. There was hunting for food as well as sport. The word "hunting" first appeared in the common Russian language at the end of the 15th century. Before that the word "catchings" existed to designate the hunting business in general. The hunting grounds were called in turn lovishcha. In the 15th-16th centuries, foreign ambassadors were frequently invited to hunts; they also received some of the prey afterwards. So did Feodor I in particular, once sending out nine elks, one bear and a black-and-brown fox.
  The right of using the hunting grounds in Russia was once granted to every social class. The right of the nobility was even sometimes limited by agreements with others regarding hunting grounds. The hawkers and separate persons who dealt with hounds, beavers, black grouses, hares, etc. were permitted either on the landed properties, or on territories specified by local people.
context_section_description: Orthodox martyr Saint Trifon is often depicted with a white merlin on his hand. Particularly the name of Moscow's Sokolniki Park refers to the rapid spread of falconry-related slobodas in Tsarist Russia. As indicated by English diplomat Jerome Horsey, Boris Godunov used to be a hawker. Meanwhile, the use of hunting birds was already popular among Russian nobility in the times of the Golden Horde. There were several hundred such birds in possession of Ivan IV, and even the road tax was collected in pigeons for falcons. However, the first famous hawker was Alexis I, who created the falconry statute book (Урядник сокольничья пути). The white, red or speckled merlins were also in common usage in those days. The merlin cocks were called cheligi (челиги). The places where the birds were caught were called pomchishcha (помчища) and the catchers - pomytchiki (помытчики). Before the reign of Feodor I each pomytchik community annually delivered three living falcons to the prince's falcon loft. In the time of Feodor I it became necessary to obtain two red merlins, three speckled and thirty-five grey.
  There were two state merlin lofts, in Semyonovskoye (in modern Sokolniki Park) and Kolomenskoye. An Italian ambassador, Horatio Calvucci, had been trying to get in and sketch at least one bird for six months; the embassy finally gained an access on February 13, 1662. In 1805 there were only fifteen hunting birds left in Semyonovskoye. The last event with hunting birds occurred during the coronation of Alexander II. The golden eagles were taken from Orenburg Governorate to hunt for wolves and foxes at that time.
caption: Noblewomen hunting. Taken in the 1890s.
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