The art is also believed to be represented in a bas-relief found in the Khorsahad ruins in which a falconer is apparently bearing a hawk on his wrist. Thus these ancient ruins of Nineveh show that the art must have been known at least seventeen hundred years before Christ.
That falconry was known to the ancient races of Africa is highly probable, though there is but little in the earlier written history of that continent regarding it. Egyptian carvings and drawings, however, indicate without a doubt that the art was there known centuries ago. Falconry is still practiced to some extent in Africa.
The art, though not obsolete in those countries of Europe where, in the middle ages, it was regarded as the greatest and most noble of all sports, is not national in its character. During the reign of William the Conqueror laws were enacted in England which were most stringent regarding falconry. At one time “falcons and hawks were allotted to degrees and orders of men according to rank and station, to royalty the jerfalcon, to an earl the peregrine, to a yeoman the goshawk, to a priest the sparrow-hawk, and to a knave or servant the useless kestrel.”
To train a hawk for this sport requires great skill and patience. The temper, disposition and, in fact, every peculiarity of each individual bird must be carefully studied. In these respects it may be said that no two birds are exactly alike. Technically the name falcon, as used by the falconer, is applied only to the female of the various species used in the conducting of this sport.
The peregrine falcon or hawk is usually accepted as the type falcon of falconry. The name peregrine, from the Latin peregrinus, means wandering, and refers to the fact that this species is almost cosmopolitan, though the geographical races are given varietal names. The duck hawk (Falco peregrinus anatum) is one of the representatives in America. “The food of this hawk consists almost exclusively of birds, of which water-fowl and shore birds form the greater part.”
The Hawks of our illustration are natives of North America ranging from Mexico northward. The American Rough-legged Hawk (Archibuteo lagopus sancti-johannis) is a geographical variety of a rough-legged form that is found in northern Europe and Asia. It is also known by the names of Black Rough-legged and Black Hawk.
This Hawk is one of the largest and most attractive of all the species of North America. Dr. Fisher tells us that “it is mild and gentle in disposition, and even when adult may be tamed in the course of a few days so that it will take food from the hand and allow its head and back to be stroked. When caged with other species of hawks, it does not as a rule fight for the food, but waits until the others have finished, before it begins to eat.”
In spite of its large size and apparent strength it does not exhibit the spirit that is so characteristic of the falcons. It preys almost entirely on field mice and other rodents, frogs and probably, at times and in certain localities, upon insects especially the grasshoppers. It is said that they will feed upon lizards, snakes and toads. They do not molest the poultry of the farmer or the game birds of the field, forest or of our water courses, at least not to any extent. Their size and their slow and heavy flight would nearly always give sufficient warning to permit the ordinary fowls to seek cover.
No better evidence as to the character of its food can be furnished than the results of the examination of forty-nine stomachs as related by Dr. Fisher. Of these forty contained mice; five, other mammals; one, lizards; one, the remains of seventy insects (this specimen was killed in Nebraska); and four, were empty. It is interesting to note “that the southern limit of its wanderings in winter is nearly coincident with the southern boundary of the region inhabited by meadow mice.”
Sir John Richardson says, “In the softness and fullness of its plumage, its feathered legs and habits, this bird bears some resemblance to the owls. It flies slowly, sits for a long time on the bough of a tree, watching for mice, frogs, etc., and is often seen sailing over swampy pieces of ground, and hunting for its prey by the subdued daylight, which illuminates even the midnight hours in the high parallels of latitude.” Mr. Ridgway says, “for noble presence and piercing eye this bird has few equals among our Falconidae.”