Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/394

366 instance (Inf. iii. 117), that the damned souls rush to Charon, when he signs to them ("come augel per suo richiamo"), like a Falcon to his call. That is the exact meaning of "richiamo," the sound made by the falconer, which from its earliest training the bird associates with the idea of food; it is sometimes used as the equivalent of "logoro," lure (Purg. xix. 62); the German Federspiel, made of leather with feathers attached, from which the Hawk is fed, that it may learn to connect with it the sight of its food, and may come back to its master if it found no bird. From what Buti says, occasionally actual birds were used for the lure, differing according to the kind of Hawk employed.

Falconers recognized two kinds of birds. First, the long-winged or proper Falcons, of which class the Gyrfalcon and the Peregrine (Falco peregrinus) were the ordinary representatives. Of these the Gyrfalcon, a big bird, inhabits Northern Europe only, and does not seem to have been imported till later into Italy for sporting purposes; while the Peregrine is the Falcon of Dante that figures in many similes. The second class consisted of the short-winged, and were generally represented by the Goshawk (Falco gentilis) and the Sparrow-Hawk (Sparvius). Dante knew both. He speaks of the two guardian angels of the quiet valley in the "Purgatorio" as "astore" (Purg. viii. 104), which is the Goshawk, and he has much to say of the "sparviere" (épervier). He notices it with regard to the common custom of the shortwinged grappling their quarry instead of striking it dead, for, in speaking of the two demons fighting (Inf. xxii. 139), he says that one

He also alludes to a method of taming the wild Sparrow-Hawk, for the envious in Purgatory expiate their sins by having their eyelids fastened together with iron wire (Purg. xiii. 71), "as is done to a wild Sparrow-Hawk, because it will not keep still"—a mode of treatment recommended by Frederic.

To turn to the sport itself. We have a picture of the process (Par. xix. 34). The start: the Hawk, on having his hood removed, shakes his head and flaps his wings (coll' ali si applauda), showing his eagerness, and making himself fine. Next (Purg. xix. 64) he surveys his feet, then turns him to the call (of the