[1] Unknown to classical writers, the earliest use of this word is
said to be by Servius Honoratus (_circa_ A.D. 390-480) in his notes
on _Aen._ x. 145. It seems possibly to be the Latinized form of the
Teutonic _Falk_, though _falx_ is commonly accounted its root.
[2] The nomenclature of nearly all the older writers on this point is
extremely confused. What many of them, even so lately as Pennant's
time, termed the "gentle falcon" is certainly the bird we now call
the goshawk (i.e. goose-hawk), which name itself may have been
transferred to the _Astur palumbarius_ of modern ornithologists, from
one of the long-winged birds of prey.
[3] It is not to be inferred, as many writers have done, that falcons
habitually prey upon birds in which disease has made any serious
progress. Such birds meet their fate from the less noble _Accipitres_
or predatory animals of many kinds. But when a bird is _first_
affected by any disorder, its power of taking care of itself is at
once impaired, and hence in the majority of cases it may become an
easy victim under circumstances which would enable a perfectly sound
bird to escape from the attack even of a falcon.
[4] French, _Emerillon_; Icelandic, _Smirill_.
FALCONE, ANIELLO (1600-1665), Italian battle-painter, was the son of a
tradesman, and was born in Naples. He showed his artistic tendency at an
early age, received some instruction from a relative, and then studied
under Ribera (Lo Spagnoletto), of whom he ranks as the most eminent
pupil. Besides battle-pictures, large and small, taken from biblical as
well as secular history, he painted various religious subjects, which,
however, count for little in his general reputation. He became, as a
battle-painter, almost as celebrated as Borgognone (Courtois), and was
named "L'Oracolo delle Battaglie." His works have animation, variety,
truth to nature, and careful colour. Falcone was bold, generous, used to
arms, and an excellent fencer. In the insurrection of Masaniello (1647)
he resolved to be bloodily avenged for the death, at the hands of two
Spaniards, of a nephew and of a pupil in the school of art which he had
established in Naples. He and many of his scholars, including Salvator
Rosa and Carlo Coppola, formed an armed band named the _Compagnia della
Morte_ ("Company of Death"; see ROSA, SALVATOR). They scoured the
streets by day, exulting in slaughter; at night they were painters
again, and handled the brush with impetuous zeal. Peace being restored,
they had to decamp. Falcone and Rosa made off to Rome; here Borgognone
noticed the works of Falcone, and became his friend, and a French
gentleman induced him to go to France, where Louis XIV. became one of
his patrons. Ultimately Colbert obtained permission for the painter to
return to Naples, and there he died in 1665. Two of his battle-pieces
are to be seen in the Louvre and in the Naples museum; he painted a
portrait of Masaniello, and engraved a few plates. Among his principal
scholars, besides Rosa and Coppola (whose works are sometimes ascribed
to Falcone himself), were Domenico Gargiuolo (named Micco Spadaro),
Paolo Porpora and Andrea di Lione.
FALCONER, HUGH (1808-1865), British palaeontologist and botanist,
descended from an old Scottish family, was born at Forres on the 29th of
February 1808. In 1826 he graduated at Aberdeen, where he manifested a
taste for the study of natural history. He afterwards studied medicine
in the university of Edinburgh, taking the degree of M.D. in 1829;
during this period he zealously attended the botanical classes of Prof.
R. Graham (1786-1845), and those on geology by Prof. R. Jameson.
Proceeding to India in 1830 as assistant-surgeon on the Bengal
establishment of the East India Company, he made on his arrival an
examination of the fossil bones from Ava in the possession of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, and his description of the collection,
published soon afterwards, gave him a recognized position among the
scientists of India. Early in 1831 he was appointed to the army station
at Meerut, in the Northwestern Provinces, but in the same year he was
asked to officiate as superintendent of the botanic garden of
Saharanpur, during the ill-health and absence of Dr J.F. Royle; and in
1832 he succeeded to this post. He was thus placed in a district that
proved to be rich in palaeontological remains; and he set to work to
investigate its natural history and geology. In 1834 he published a
geological description of the Siwalik hills, in the Tertiary strata of
which he had in 1831 discovered bones of crocodiles, tortoises and other
animals; and subsequently, with conjoint labourers, he brought to light
a sub-tropical fossil fauna of unexampled extent and richness, including
remains of _Mastodon_, the colossal ruminant _Sivatherium_, and the
enormous tortoise _Colossochelys Atlas_. For these valuable discoveries
he and Captain (afterwards Sir Proby T.) Cautley (1802-1871) received in
1837 the Wollaston medal in duplicate from the Geological Society of
London. In 1834 Falconer was appointed to inquire into the fitness of
India for the growth of the tea-plant, and it was on his recommendation
that it was introduced into that country.
He was compelled by illness to leave India in 1842, and during his stay
in England he occupied himself with the classification and arrangement
of the Indian fossils presented to the British Museum and East India
House, chiefly by himself and Sir Proby T. Cautley. He then set to work
to edit the great memoir by Cautley and himself, entitled _Fauna Antiqua
Sivalensis_, of which Part I. text was issued in 1846, and a series of
107 plates during the years 1846-1849. Unfortunately the work, owing
partly to Dr Falconer's absence from England and partly to ill-health,
was never completed. He was elected F.R.S. in 1845. In 1847 he was
appointed superintendent of the Calcutta botanical garden, and professor
of botany in the medical college; and on entering on his duties in the
following year he was at once employed by the Indian government and the
Agricultural and Horticultural Society as their adviser on all matters
connected with the vegetable products of India. He prepared an important
report on the teak forests of Tenasserim, and this was the means of
saving them from destruction by reckless felling; and through his
recommendation the cultivation of the cinchona bark was introduced into
the Indian empire. Being compelled by the state of his health to leave
India in 1855, he spent the remainder of his life chiefly in examining
fossil species in England and the Continent corresponding to those which
he had discovered in India, notably the species of mastodon, elephant
and rhinoceros; he also described some new mammalia from the Purbeck
strata, and he reported on the bone-caves of Sicily, Gibraltar, Gower
and Brixham. In the course of his researches he became interested in the
question of the antiquity of the human race, and actually commenced a
work on "Primeval Man," which, however, he did not live to finish. He
died on the 31st of January 1865. Shortly after his death a committee
was formed for the promotion of a "Falconer Memorial." This took the
shape of a marble bust, which was placed in the rooms of the Royal
Society of London, and of a Falconer scholarship of the annual value of
L100, open for competition to graduates in science or medicine of the
university of Edinburgh.
Dr Falconer's botanical notes, with 450 coloured drawings of Kashmir
and Indian plants, have been deposited in the library at Kew Gardens,
and his _Palaeontological Memoirs and Notes_, comprising all his
papers read before learned societies, have been edited, with a
biographical sketch, by Charles Murchison, M.D. (London, 1868). Many
reminiscences of Dr Falconer, and a portrait of him, were published by
his niece, Grace, Lady Prestwich, in her _Essays descriptive and
biographical_ (1901).
FALCONER, WILLIAM (1732-1760), British poet, was born in Edinburgh on
the 11th of February 1732. His father was a wig-maker, and carried on
business in one of the small shops with wooden fronts at the Netherbow
Port, an antique castellated structure which remained till 1764,
dividing High Street from the Canongate. The old man became bankrupt,
then tried business as a grocer, and finally died in extreme poverty.
William, the son, having received a scanty education, was put to sea. He
served on board a Leith merchant vessel, and in his eighteenth year
obtained the appointment of second mate of the "Britannia," a vessel
employed in the Levant trade, and sailed from Alexandria for Venice. The
"Britannia" was overtaken by a dreadful storm off Cape Colonna and was
wrecked, only three of the crew being saved. Falconer was happily one of
the three, and the incidents of the voyage and its disastrous
termination formed the subject of his poem of _The Shipwreck_ (1762).
Meanwhile, on his return to England, Falconer, in his nineteenth year,
printed at Edinburgh an elegy on Frederick, prince of Wales, and
afterwards contributed short pieces to the _Gentleman's Magazine_. Some
of these descriptive and lyrical effusions possess merit. The fine naval
song of "The Storm" ("Cease, rude Boreas"), reputed to be by George
Alexander Stevens, the dramatic writer and lecturer, has been ascribed
to Falconer, but apparently on no authority. The duke of York, to whom
_The Shipwreck_ had been dedicated, advised Falconer to enter the royal
navy, and before the end of 1762 the poet-sailor was rated as a
midshipman on board the "Royal George." But as this ship was paid off at
the peace of 1763, Falconer received an appointment as purser of the
"Glory" frigate, a situation which he held until that vessel was laid up
on ordinary at Chatham. In 1764 he published a new and enlarged edition
of _The Shipwreck_, and in the same year a rhymed political tirade
against John Wilkes and Charles Churchill, entitled _The Demagogue_. In
1769 appeared his _Universal Marine Dictionary_, in which _retreat_ is
defined as a French manoeuvre, "not properly a term of the British
marine." While engaged on this dictionary, J. Murray, a bookseller in
Fleet Street, father of Byron's munificent publisher and correspondent,
wished him to join him as a partner in business. The poet declined the
offer, and became purser of the "Aurora" frigate, which had been
commissioned to carry out to India certain supervisors or
superintendents of the East India Company. Besides his nomination as
purser, Falconer was promised the post of private secretary to the
commissioners. Before sailing he published a third edition of his
_Shipwreck_, which had again undergone "correction," but not
improvement. The poet sailed in the "Aurora" from Spithead on the 20th
of September 1769. The vessel arrived safely at the Cape of Good Hope,
and left on the 27th of December. She was never more heard of, having,
as is supposed, foundered at sea. _The Shipwreck_, the poem with which
Falconer's name is connected, had a great reputation at one time, but
the fine passages which pleased the earlier critics have not saved it
from general oblivion.
See his _Poetical Works_ in the "Aldine Edition" (1836), with a life
by J. Mitford.
FALCONET, ETIENNE MAURICE (1716-1791), French sculptor, was born in
Paris. His parents were poor, and he was at first apprenticed to a
carpenter, but some of his clay-figures, with the making of which he
occupied his leisure hours, attracted the notice of the sculptor
Lemoine, who made him his pupil. He found time to study Greek and Latin,
and also wrote several _brochures_ on art. His artistic productions are
characterized by the same defects as his writings, for though
manifesting considerable cleverness and some power of imagination, they
display in many cases a false and fantastic taste, the result, most
probably, of an excessive striving after originality. One of his most
successful statues was one of Milo of Crotona, which secured his
admission to the membership of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1754. At the
invitation of the empress Catherine he went in 1766 to St Petersburg,
where he executed a colossal statue of Peter the Great in bronze. In
1788 he became director of the French Academy of Painting. Many of
Falconet's works, being placed in churches, were destroyed at the time
of the French Revolution. His "_Nymphe descendant au bain_" is in the
Louvre.
Among his writings are _Reflexions sur la sculpture_ (Paris, 1768),
and _Observations sur la statue de Marc-Aurele_ (Paris, 1771). The
whole were collected under the title of _Oeuvres litteraires_ (6
vols., Lausanne, 1781-1782; 3 vols., Paris, 1787).
FALCONRY (Fr. _fauconnerie_, from Late Lat. _falco_, falcon), the art of
employing falcons and hawks in the chase, often termed _Hawking_.
Falconry was for many ages one of the principal sports of the richer
classes, and, since many more efficacious methods and appliances for the
capture of game undoubtedly existed, it is probable that it has always
been carried on as a pure sport. The antiquity of falconry is very
great. There appears to be little doubt that it was practised in Asia at
a very remote period, for which we have the concurrent testimony of
various Chinese and Japanese works, some of the latter being most
quaintly and yet spiritedly illustrated. It appears to have been known
in China some 2000 years B.C., and the records of a king Wen Wang, who
reigned over a province of that country 689 B.C., prove that the art was
at that time in very high favour. In Japan it appears to have been known
at least 600 years B.C., and probably at an equally early date in India,
Arabia, Persia and Syria. Sir A.H. Layard, in his _Nineveh and Babylon_,
considered that in a bas-relief found by him in the ruins of Khorsabad
"there appeared to be a falconer bearing a hawk on his wrist," from
which it would appear to have been known there some 1700 years B.C. In
all the above-mentioned countries of Asia it is practised at the present
day.
Little is known of the early history of falconry in Africa, but from
very ancient Egyptian carvings and drawings it seems to have been known
there many ages ago. It was probably also in vogue in the countries of
Morocco, Oran, Algiers, Tunis and Egypt, at the same time as in Europe.
The older writers on falconry, English and continental, often mention
Barbary and Tunisian falcons. It is still practised in Egypt.
Perhaps the oldest records of falconry in Europe are supplied by the
writings of Pliny, Aristotle and Martial. Although their notices of the
sport are slight and somewhat vague, yet they are quite sufficient to
show clearly that it was practised in their days--between the years 384
B.C. and A.D. 40. It was probably introduced into England from the
continent about A.D. 860, and from that time down to the middle of the
17th century falconry was followed with an ardour that perhaps no
English sport has ever called forth, not even fox-hunting. Stringent
laws and enactments, notably in the reigns of William the Conqueror,
Edward III., Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, were passed from time to time in
its interest. Falcons and hawks were allotted to degrees and orders of
men according to rank and station--for instance, to the emperor the
eagle and vulture, to royalty the jerfalcons, 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. The writings of Shakespeare furnish ample
testimony to the high and universal estimation in which it was held in
his days. About the middle of the 17th century falconry began to decline
in England, to revive somewhat at the Restoration. It never, however,
completely recovered its former favour, a variety of causes operating
against it, such as enclosure of waste lands, agricultural improvements,
and the introduction of fire-arms into the sporting field, till it fell,
as a national sport, almost into oblivion. Yet it has never been even
temporarily extinct, and it is successfully practised even at the
present day.
In Europe the game or "quarry" at which hawks are flown consists of
grouse (confined to the British Isles), black-game, pheasants,
partridges, quails, landrails, ducks, teal, woodcocks, snipes, herons,
rooks, crows, gulls, magpies, jays, blackbirds, thrushes, larks, hares
and rabbits. In former days geese, cranes, kites, ravens and bustards
were also flown at. Old German works make much mention of the use of the
Iceland falcon for taking the great bustard, a flight scarcely alluded
to by English writers. In Asia the list of quarry is longer, and, in
addition to all the foregoing, or their Asiatic representatives, various
kinds of bustards, sand grouse, storks, ibises, spoonbills, pea-fowl,
jungle-fowl, kites, vultures and gazelles are captured by trained hawks.
In Mongolia and Chinese Tartary, and among the nomad tribes of central
Asia, the sport still flourishes; and though some late accounts are not
satisfactory either to the falconer or the naturalist, yet they leave no
doubt that a species of eagle is still trained in those regions to take
large game, as antelopes and wolves. Mr Atkinson, in his account of his
travels in the country of the Amur, makes particular mention of the
sport, as does also Mr Shaw in his work on Yarkand; and in a letter from
the Yarkand embassy, under Mr Forsyth, C.B., dated Camp near Yarkand,
Nov. 27, 1873, the following passage occurs:--"Hawking appears also to
be a favourite amusement, the golden eagle taking the place of the
falcon or hawk. This novel sport seemed very successful." It is
questionable whether the bird here spoken of is the golden eagle. In
Africa gazelles are taken, and also partridges and wild-fowl.
The hawks used in England are the three great northern falcons, viz. the
Greenland, Iceland and Norway falcons, the peregrine falcon, the hobby,
the merlin, the goshawk and the sparrow-hawk. In former days the saker,
the lanner and the Barbary or Tunisian falcon were also employed. (See
FALCON.)
Of the foregoing the easiest to keep, most efficient in the field, and
most suitable for general use are the peregrine falcon and the goshawk.
In all hawks, the female is larger and more powerful than the male.
Hawks are divided by falconers all over the world into two great
classes. The first class comprises "falcons," i.e. "long-winged hawks,"
or "hawks of the lure," distinguished by Eastern falconers as "dark-eyed
hawks." In these the wings are pointed, the second feather in the wing
is the longest, and the iris is of a deep, dark-brown hue. Merlins must,
however, be excepted; and here it would seem that the Eastern
distinction is the better, for though merlins are much more falcons than
they are hawks, they differ from falcons in having the third feather in
the wing the longest, while they are certainly "dark-eyed hawks."
The second class is that of "hawks," i.e. "short-winged hawks," or
"hawks of the fist," called by Eastern falconers "yellow (or rose) eyed
hawks." In these the wings are rounded, the fourth feather is the
longest in the wing, and the iris is yellow, orange or deep-orange.
The following glossary of the principal terms used in falconry may
assist the reader in perusing this notice of the practice of the art.
Useless or obsolete terms are omitted:--
_Austringan._--A falconer.
_Bate._--A hawk is said to "bate" when she flutters off from the fist,
perch or block, whether from wildness, or for exercise, or in the
attempt to chase.
_Bewits._--Straps of leather by which the bells are fastened to a
hawk's legs.
_Bind._--A hawk is said to "bind" when she seizes a bird in the air
and clings to it.
_Block._--The conical piece of wood, of the form of an inverted
flower-pot, used for hawks to sit upon; for a peregrine it should be
about 10 to 12 in. high, 5 to 6 in diameter at top, and 8 to 9 in
diameter at base.
_Brail._--A thong of soft leather used to secure, when desirable, the
wing of a hawk. It has a slit to admit the pinion joint, and the ends
are tied together.
_Cadge._--The wooden frame on which hawks, when numerous, are carried
to the field.
_Cadger._--The person who carries the cadge.
_Calling off._--Luring a hawk (see LURE) from the hand of an
assistant.
_Carry._--A hawk is said to "carry" when she flies away with the
quarry on the approach of the falconer.
_Cast._--Two hawks which may be used for flying together are called a
"cast," not necessarily a pair.
_Casting._--The oblong or egg-shaped ball, consisting of feathers,
bones, &c., which all hawks (and insectivorous birds) throw up after
the nutritious part of their food has been digested. Also the fur or
feathers given them to assist the process.
_Cere._--The naked wax-like skin above the beak.
_Check._--A hawk is said to fly at "check" when she flies at a bird
other than the intended object of pursuit.
_Clutching._--Taking the quarry in the feet as the short-winged hawks
do. Falcons occasionally "clutch."
_Come to._--A hawk is said to "come to" when she begins to get tame.
_Coping._--Cutting the beak or talons of a hawk.
_Crab._--To fight.
_Creance._--A long line or string.
_Crop, to put away._--A hawk is said to "put away her crop" when the
food passes out of the crop into the stomach.
_Deck feathers._--The two centre tail-feathers.
_Eyas._--A hawk which has been brought up from the nest (nyas, from
Fr. _niais_).
_Eyry._--The nest of a hawk.
_Foot._--A hawk is said to "foot" well or to be a "good footer" when
she is successful in killing. Many hawks are very fine fliers without
being "good footers."
_Frounce._--A disease in the mouth and throat of hawks.
_Get in._--To go up to a hawk when she has killed her quarry.
_Hack._--The state of partial liberty in which young hawks must always
at first be kept.
_Haggard._--A wild-caught hawk in the adult plumage.
_Hood._--(See fig.)
_Hoodshy._--A hawk is said to be "hoodshy" when she is afraid of, or
resists, having her hood put on.
_Hunger trace._--A mark, and a defect, in the tail feathers, denoting
a weak point; generally due to temporary starvation as a nestling.
_Imping._--The process of mending broken feathers is called "imping."
(See fig.)
_Imping needle._--A piece of tough soft iron wire from about 1-1/2 to
2-1/2 in. long, rough filed so as to be three-sided and tapering from
the middle to the ends. (See fig.)
_Intermewed._--A hawk moulted in confinement is said to be
"intermewed."
_Jack._--Mate of the merlin.
_Jerkin._--Mate of the jerfalcon.
_Jesses._--Strips of light but very tough leather, some 6 to 8 in.
long, which always remain on a hawk's legs--one on each leg. (See
fig.)
_Jonk._--To sleep.
_Leash._--A strong leathern thong, some 2-1/2 or 3 ft. long, with a
knot or button at one end, used to secure a hawk. (See fig.)
_Lure._--The instrument used for calling long-winged hawks--a dead
pigeon, or an artificial lure made of leather and feathers or wings of
birds, tied to a string, with meat attached to it.
_Mail._--The breast feathers.
_Make hawk._--A hawk is called a "make hawk" when, as a thoroughly
trained and steady hawk, she is flown with young ones to teach them
their work.
_Man a hawk._--To tame a hawk and accustom her to strangers.
[Illustration: Implements used in Falconry.