alk of the flight of birds. Every one speaks of it, but few
speak well. Many speak so ignorantly as to excite pity among their
hearers. Sometimes one says the _hand_ of the bird instead of saying the
_talon_, sometimes the _talon_ instead of the _claw_, sometimes the _claw_
instead of the _nail_" &c.

The fourteenth century was the great epoch of falconry. There were then so
many nobles who hawked, that in the rooms of inns there were perches made
under the large mantel-pieces on which to place the birds while the
sportsmen were at dinner. Histories of the period are full of
characteristic anecdotes, which prove the enthusiasm which was created by
hawking in those who devoted themselves to it.

[Illustration: Fig. 154.--"How to make Young Hawks fly."--Fac-simile of a
Miniature in the Manuscript of "Livre du Roy Modus" (Fourteenth Century).]

Emperors and kings were as keen as others for this kind of sport. As early
as the tenth century the Emperor Henry I. had acquired the soubriquet of
"the Bird-catcher," from the fact of his giving much more attention to his
birds than to his subjects. His example was followed by one of his
successors, the Emperor Henry VI., who was reckoned the first falconer of
his time. When his father, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (Red-beard),
died in the Holy Land, in 1189, the Archdukes, Electors of the Empire,
went out to meet the prince so as to proclaim him Emperor of Germany. They
found him, surrounded by dogs, horses, and birds, ready to go hunting.
"The day is fine," he said; "allow us to put off serious affairs until
to-morrow."

Two centuries later we find at the court of France the same ardour for
hawking and the same admiration for the performances of falcons. The
Constable Bertrand du Guesclin gave two hawks to King Charles VI.; and
the Count de Tancarville, whilst witnessing a combat between these noble
birds and a crane which had been powerful enough to keep two greyhounds at
bay, exclaimed, "I would not give up the pleasure which I feel for a
thousand florins!"

The court-poet, William Cretin, although he was Canon of the holy chapel
of Vincennes, was as passionately fond of hawking as his good master Louis
XII. He thus describes the pleasure he felt in seeing a heron succumb to
the vigorous attack of the falcons:--

"Qui auroit la mort aux dents,
Il revivroit d'avour un tel passe-temps!"

("He who is about to die
Would live again with such amusement.")

[Illu