Duck Hawking

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.

De Arte Venandi cum Avibus was written shortly before the year 1250 by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily and Jerusalem, in whose court, with its remarkably cosmopolitan and highly intellectual life, may be found the real beginning of the Italian Renaissance. In spite of its title, it is far more than a dissertation on hunting. There is a lengthy introduction dealing with the anatomy of birds, an intensely interesting description of avian habits, and the excursions of migratory birds. Indeed, this ancient book has long been recognized as the first zoological treatise written in the critical spirit of modern science. The sumptuous volume now in hand is, however, the first translation into English of the complete text, originally divided into a prologue and size books. Together, the translators and editors, have at last made available this classic work and have adorned it with notes, comments, bibliographies, and glossary. They have produced a work of great value to zoologists--especially the ornithologist--and also to everyone interested in the history of science and in medieval art and letters.

A superb success as a bird, combining great speed, aeronautical grace, and fearlessness...inhabitant of wild places, inaccessible cliffs, and skyscrapers...worldwide dweller, trans-equatorial migrant, and docile captive—the peregrine falcon stands alone among all others of its kind. Perhaps this is why so many varied people rushed to its aid when it faced decimation by pesticide poisoning. In this personal and highly entertaining memoir, Jim Enderson tells stories of a lifetime spent studying, training, breeding, and simply enjoying peregrine falcons. He recalls how his boyhood interest in raptors grew into an ornithological career in which he became one of the leading experts who helped identity DDT as the cause of the peregrine falcon's sudden and massive decline across the United States. His stories reveal both the dedication that he and fellow researchers brought to the task of studying and restoring the peregrine and the hair-raising adventures that sometimes befell them along the way. Enderson also seamlessly weaves in the biology and natural history of the peregrine, as well as anecdotes about its traditional and widespread use in falconry as an aggressive yet tractable hunter, to offer a broad portrait of this splendid and intriguing falcon.

A beautifully illustrated tour of the visual culture of medieval falconry in Europe and beyond. Medieval falconry was not just about hunting; the practice also signified sovereignty, power, and diplomacy. In The Art of Medieval Falconry, Yannis Hadjinicolaou describes the visual culture that sprang up around these practices, tracking how imagery, equipment, and even the birds themselves moved through the medieval world. Indeed, Hadjinicolaou shows that falconry has been a global phenomenon since at least the thirteenth century. This beautifully illustrated book offers a unique glimpse at how cultures across the globe adopted and adapted the visual culture of medieval falconry.

This lavishly illustrated encyclopedia contains some 1,500 terms and idioms, related to or connected with falconry, with explanations, derivations and notes. It is illustrated with photographs, figures, and reproductions of antiquarian prints and is believed to be the first attempt to catalog and review the complete language of falconry as used between the later Middle Ages and the present day. The Encyclopedia of Falconry will be a valuable addition to all reference collections by uniquely covering a subject with a long and distinguished history.

Hunting with birds of prey was a popular sport in medieval England, in both the royal household & amongst the nobility who had the money to afford to retain falconers & buy the birds. This book offers a detailed history of royal falconry from the 11th to the 14th century.