The Art and Practice of Hawking

E. B. Michell

Description

This vintage book contains a comprehensive guide to the art of hawking, with information on training, game-hawking, equipment, care and management, nutrition, handling, history, and much more. Based on the author's thirty years hawking experience, this timeless manual contains everything a beginner might need to know on the subject, and will also include information of value to those with more experience. Contents include: "History and Literature", "The Birds Used in Hawking", "Furniture and Fittings", "Eyesses and Hack Hawks", "Passage Hawks", "Training and Entering", "Rook-Hawking", "Game-Hawking", "Lark-Hawking", "Gulls, Heron, Kite, Duck", "The Goshawk", et cetera. Many vintage texts such as this, especially those dating back to the 1900s and before, are increasingly hard to come by and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this book now in an affordable, modern, high quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on falconry.

Sujets

• Sports
• Recreation
• Hunting

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 22 décembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781473365469
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

THE ART AND PRACTICE OF HAWKING
BY
E. B. MICHELL
WITH THREE PHOTOGRAVURES BY G. E. LODGE AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS


Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library


Contents
Edward Michell
Falconry
PREFACE
CHAPTER I
History and Literature
CHAPTER II
The Birds used in Hawking
I. THE LONG-WINGED HAWKS [1] (Falcons)
Greenland Falcon ( Falco candicans )
Iceland Falcon ( Falco islandus )
Norway Falcon ( Falco gyrfalco )
Labrador Falcon ( Falco labradorus )
Peregrine ( Falco peregrinus )
Black Shaheen ( Falco peregrinator , or Falco atriceps )
Red-naped Shaheen ( Falco babylonicus )
Barbary Falcon ( Falco barbarus )
Lesser Falcon ( Falco minor )
Saker ( Falco sacer )
Lanner ( Falco lanarius )
Lugger ( Falco jugger )
Eleonora Falcon ( Falco eleonoræ )
Hobby ( Falco sabbuteo )
Merlin ( Falco æsalon )
Indian Merlin ( Falco chicquera )
Kestrel ( Falco tinnunculus )
II. THE SHORT-WINGED HAWKS
Goshawk ( Astur palumbarius )
Sparrow-Hawk ( Accipiter nisus )
Besra Sparrow-Hawk ( Accipiter virgatus )
III. THE EAGLES
Golden Eagle ( Aquila chrysaetus )
Berkute ( Aquila nobilis )
White-Crowned Eagle ( Haliætus leucoryphus )
Spotted Eagle ( Aquila clanga or nævia )
Steppe Eagle ( Aquila nipalensis )
Bonelli’s Eagle ( Aquila Bonellii )
CHAPTER III
Furniture and Fittings
CHAPTER IV
Eyesses and Hack Hawks
CHAPTER V
Passage Hawks
CHAPTER VI
Training and Entering
CHAPTER VII
Rook-Hawking
CHAPTER VIII
Game-Hawking
CHAPTER IX
Lark-Hawking
CHAPTER X
Gulls, Heron, Kite, Duck, etc.
CHAPTER XI
The Goshawk
CHAPTER XII
The Sparrow-Hawk
CHAPTER XIII
Home Life
CHAPTER XIV
Hawks in the Field
CHAPTER XV
Lost Hawks
CHAPTER XVI
Accidents and Maladies
CHAPTER XVII
Moulting
CHAPTER XVIII
Virtue and Vice
CHAPTER XIX
Anecdotes and Adventures


Illustrations
SHAPE OF WINGS
TRAINED KESTREL “THUNDERBOLT”
HAWK’S FURNITURE, I.
HAWK’S FURNITURE, II.
HAWK’S FURNITURE, III.
CADGE WITH PEREGRINES
FALCON AND TIERCEL WEATHERING
PLUMING THE DEAD GROUSE
TRAINED MERLIN
TRAINED GOSHAWK “GAIETY GAL”


Photogravures
Falcons and Goshawk Weathering.
Death of a Rook
Sparrow-Hawk and Partridge.


Edward Michell
Edward Blair Michell, born in 1843, was an English barrister and rower who won the Wingfield Sculls in 1866 and the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta in 1866 and 1867. He was also a boxer, a linguist, an authority on falconry and the author of books on a variety of subjects.
Michell was born at Oxford, the son of Richard Michell (principal of Hertford College) and his wife Amelia Blair. He spent his university education at Magdalen College, Oxford – where he soon discovered his considerable sporting talents, joining both the rowing and boxing teams. In 1865 he entered the Diamond Challenge Sculls (an event for men’s single sculls) at Henley but was beaten by W. B. Woodgate. Woodgate was indeed stiff competition, a man who also won the Wingfield Sculls three times, and in 1868 created the first coxless four by persuading Brasenose College’s cox to jump overboard after the start of the Henley’s Stewards’ Challenge Cup.
Despite this initial setback, Michell won against Woodgate in 1866 and 1867. He also won the Wingfield Sculls against Woodgate in 1866, but did not compete in 1867 because of sciatica. In 1868 he capsized in the Wingfield Sculls, and earned criticism for racing without a shirt. It should also be noted that throughout this period, Michell was simultaneously continuing his boxing career – and was a champion heavy, middle and lightweight boxer.
After graduating from Oxford, Michell became a barrister. Due to his proficiency in languages, he was also a French avocat (lawyer), and managed to get into Paris after the German armistice in 1871. This meant that Michell was in Paris during the time of the Paris Commune, a revolutionary and socialist government that briefly ruled Paris from 18th March until 28th May 1871. He published a view of life under the commune in Fraser’s Magazine , noting that although he and a colleague had not been very well treated by the Communist authorities they agreed that never in their time, and they both knew Paris well, had that city been so admirably managed in every way as under the rule of the Commune.
Moving on from his adventures in France, Michell later became legal adviser to Chulalongkorn, King Rama V of Siam (also being fluent in Siamese), and wrote a Siamese-English dictionary (1892). He also became an expert on hawking, and after publishing The Art and Practice of Hawking (1900) was considered the greatest living authority on merlins. Michell is also said to have purchased Wimbledon for the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club , although this is open to speculation. Michell died in 1926.


Falconry
‘Falconry’ refers to the hunting of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a ‘falconer’ flies a falcon, and an ‘austringer’ (a term of German origin) flies a hawk or an eagle. Falconry has a long and distinguished history, and it has been suggested that it began in Mesopotamia, with the earliest accounts dating to approximately 2000 BC. It was probably introduced to Europe around 400 AD however, when the Huns and the Alans invaded from the East. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (a member of the Swabian dynasty in the High Middle Ages who possessed huge amounts of territory across Europe) is generally acknowledged as the most significant wellspring of traditional falconry knowledge. He is believed to have obtained firsthand knowledge of Arabic falconry during wars in the region in 1228 and 1229, in which he participated in his role as Holy Roman Emperor. Frederick is best known for his falconry treatise, De Arte Venandi Cum Avibus (The Art of Hunting with Birds); the first comprehensive book on falconry, as well as a substantial contribution to ornithology and zoology. Historically, falconry has always been a popular sport of the upper classes and nobility, largely due to the prerequisites of time, money and space. However, within some societies, such as the Bedouin, falconry was not practiced for recreation, but for purely practical reasons of supplementing a very limited diet. In the UK, falconry reached its zenith in the seventeenth century, but faded reasonably rapidly due to the introduction of firearms for hunting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It did witness a revival in the late nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries however, when several falconry books were published. Interestingly, in early English falconry literature, the word ‘falcon’ referred to a female falcon only, while the word ‘hawk’ referred to a female hawk. A male hawk or falcon was referred to as a ‘tercel’, as it was roughly one third less than the female in size. Whilst falconry is now practiced in many countries world wide, it is less common in areas such as Australasia. In Australia, although falconry is not specifically illegal, it is illegal to keep any type of bird of prey in captivity without the appropriate permits, and in New Zealand, falconry was legalised for one species only, the Swap/Australasian harrier, in 2011. There are currently only four practicing falconers in New Zealand. However, in countries such as the UK and US today, falconry is experiencing a boom. Its popularity, through lure flying displays at country houses and game fairs, has probably never been higher in the past 300 years. It has also been the subject of a popular book Falcon Fever, written by Tim Gallagher in 2008. Falconry is also used for practical purposes in the modern day, the birds are taught to control other pest birds and animals in urban areas, landfills, commercial buildings, and even airports.
TO THE
EARL AND COUNTESS OF WARWICK
AND ALL OTHER LOVERS OF HAWKING THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR

Falcons and Goshawk Weathering.


PREFACE
Notwithstanding the large number of books, both ancient and modern, which have been written on the art of Hawking, it cannot be said that the English-speaking people generally have more than a very vague idea of the character of the sport, or the mode in which it was, and still is, conducted.
Yet, in an experience of Hawking which extends over more than thirty years, the author has found that a great and increasing curiosity, and even a real interest in the subject, prevails, especially amongst sporting men, who are in many notable instances beginning to believe that hawks and their owners have been unduly disparaged, and that there is more to be said in their favour than has for the last two centuries been imagined.
There has not been space in this volume to discuss the much-vexed question how far the use of hawks is compatible with the preservation of game. But it may be said here, without any reservation, that wherever experiments have been actually tried, Hawking has been found not to spoil but to improve the shooting.
The object of the author has been to describe as briefly as was consistent with clearness the birds now chiefly used in the chase, and the manner of training and flying them. His hope is that some of the sportsmen who read these pages may, in spite of the difficulties which they will have to encounter,