[259] [See Vulg. Err. B. 3. c. 10.]
[260] Vulg. Err. B. 5. c. 3.
[OF HAWKS AND FALCONRY]
Ancient and Modern.
TRACT V
Sir,
In vain you expect much information, de Re Accipitraria, of Falconry, Hawks or Hawking, from very ancient Greek or Latin Authours; that Art being either unknown or so little advanced among them, that it seems to have proceeded no higher than the daring of Birds: which makes so little thereof to be found in Aristotle, who onely mentions some rude practice thereof in Thracia; as also in Ælian, who speaks something of Hawks and Crows among the Indians; little or nothing of true Falconry being mention’d before Julius Firmicus, in the days of Constantius, Son to Constantine the Great.
Yet if you consult the accounts of later Antiquity left by Demetrius the Greek, by Symmachus and Theodosius, and by Albertus Magnus, about five hundred years ago, you, who have been so long acquainted with this noble Recreation, may better compare the ancient and modern practice, and rightly observe how many things in that Art are added, varied, disused or retained in the practice of these days.