Pheafant Hawking.

lowed and governed, than in the field, fo that if you would have her make a perfect hawk, and to be bold and venturous in thick woods, with the falconer, the dogs, and the game, you muft make a good choice of the time, place, and dogs.

211

when he has done, and begins to look about her, then throw the pheafant amongst them, that the may, together with fome words of rebuke from you, make them give way with fear to her; but let them be in her fight, and have ing fufficiently taken her pleafure, take the pheafant gently from her, leaving the head in her

The time fhould be early in the year, about January, Febru. ary, or March, before the ap-foot, and let her eat it on the proach of the leaf; but the best months for pheafant - hawking, are November, December, and January, after which you must be preparing her for the mew, that The may be early mewed, to fly in the field the next feafon for partridges.

ground where the quarry lay, only referving a little to take her to your fift; then put oa her hood and reward her, by which means you will much wis her love to you. She wiil, according to thefe directions, with a good keeper, fair flying, and two or three ftaunch spaniels, be brought in a fhort time, to good perfection in this fport. Again, in order to embolden your hawk, to make her take a pheasant from the perch with courage, obferve the directions following: before you fly her, provide a dead pheafant or live one, which is beft, take it with you into the wood, and when you are difpofed to call your hawk for her fupper, and as he is drawing and attend

Having made choice of the place to fly your hawk in, and that you have let her go into her Alight, be fure to command your dogs behind you until you have found her; and if he has killed the game, it is fufficient: if not, but that you find her on the ground, out of an eagerness of the fport, (as many will be at the first entrance) if there be any tree that the may well fee from it, fet her thereon, otherwife keep her on your fift, and beat for iting after you for the fame, havagain; then if the flies and kills it, keep the dogs back until you have found her, and fuffer her to plume and take her pleasure for a time; then gently call in your dogs and walk about her, encou. raging her with your voice, that fhe may be acquainted with the noife; and when you fee it convenient, ftoop to it upon your knees, and rending the chaps, give her blood in the throat, which will much please her; pare away alfo the hard brain-paning, and that the may plume and from the reft, and give her the take her pleasure thereon, which head in her foot to eat, the ground will fo embolden her in a fmall hiding the body from her; then time, that when the fees a pheahaving your dog (which must be fant take perch, fhe will immeunder great command) clofe by,diately feize it and pull it down;

ing a couvenient pole ready for your purpose, call your fpaniels about you to make them bay, and fuddenly breaking the neck of the pheafant, lift it up on a bough, that the hawk may have a fight of it, and with your voice call and encourage her to come in and feize it, and if the pulls it down, be fure that you rebuke the dogs in fuch manner, and keep them fo at command, that they give her way at her defcend

nor

212

Equeftrian and Pedeftrian Sports in France.

nor will she be afraid of the dogs, for when they are once managed and brought into good fubjection, they will know their duty, and be fearful of tranfgreffing,. fo that if you are, abfent you may venture them; but remember, by all means, to have no ftrange dogs for one may spoil your fport, by drawing the reft into errors, and causing them to hunt after any thing; nor is it convenient to hunt with many fpaniels, for two or three couple is enough to range and beat about a large wood, and to perch a pheasant.

BOUT the year 1776,

(fays the writers of thefe anecdotes) there prevailed a great paffion for horfe racing; it was the Anglomania. Great bets were depending at every courfe, and the nobleman turned jockies,

and rode their Own

racers.

When the Count de Lauragais, a diffipated young nobleman, appeared at court, after a long refidence in England, the king coldly enquired where he had been for fome time?"-"In England," the Count replied.

What did you do there?”. "I learnt there, please your majefty, to think" of horses," retorted the king.

"Tee nation, indeed, frivolous as they were, faw with indignation the behaviour of the Duke de Chartres (Egalité) and the Count d'Artois. These prince

not only affociated with their grooms, and entered into all those fcandalous combinations which this fpecies of gaming offers, but treated the people at the courfes with the most ineffable contempt and favage ferocity. With fingular activity they ufed their whips on the fpectators as well as on their horfes; and not only encouraged the officers to perfecute the crowd, but employed fuch groffnefs of fpeech, and offenfive oaths, that fhewed thefe princes were not unskilled in the language of the vileft part of the

nation.

"It was an edifying fpectacle to fee the Duke of Lauzern running againft M. de Fenelon; the laft fell from his horfe, broke his arm, and loft his wager. The fame gentleman betted with ano. ther nobleman, who could reach Verfailles and return to Paris the quickest in a single horse chaise: the horse of the first died at Seve, and the other expired in the stable at Paris, a few hours after his re

turn.

"Thefe frivolous and debauched courtiers, not fatisfied with exer

cifing their inhumanity on their derifion of Paris, by other kinds horfes, expofed themselves to the of races. The Duke de Chartres, the Duke de Lauzan, and the Marquis Fitzjames, betted five

hundred louis who could first reach Verfailles on foot. Lauzan gave up the foot-race about half way; Chartres about twothirds; Fitzjames arrived in an exhaufted state, and was faluted as conqueror by the Count d' Artois. He, however, like a hero. nearly expiring in the arms of victory, called for a bed, and got his wager an an asthma. It was in this manner the princes of the blood, the defcendants of

Henry

Natural History of the Bufard.

Henry the Great, paffed their days, and it was thus they gave to a defpairing and oppreffed people, thofe hopes of profperity and amendment which now be came at every hour neceffary to fuftain their exhaufted mifery, and to fill their frequent mur

murs.

"We obferve afterwards that not fatisfied with horfe and footracing by the courtiers, the queen had others by affes. She animated by her prefence, the countrymen in the neighbourhood, and the winner had for his reward, three hundred livres and a golden thistle; allufive to the plant to which affes are partial." NATURAL HISTORY of the BusTARD; including Jome account of the Mode of Hunting them with Greyhounds, &c.

TH

HIS is the largest land-bird which is a native of Europe. It was formerly much more numerous than it is at prefent; but the increafed cultivation of the country, and the extreme delicacy of its flesh, has greatly thinned the fpecies. Perhaps it would have been extirpated long before this, had it not been for the peculiarity of its manner of feeding. It inhabits only the open and extenfive plain, where its food is abundantly fupplied; and where every invader may be 'perceived at a distance.

The weight of this bird is from about ten to twenty feven pounds fome of them have even exceeded thirty. The buftard is diftinguished from the oftrich, the touyou, the caffowary, and the dodo, by its wings, which, though difproportioned to the fize of its body, ferve to elevate it into the air, and enable it to fly, but not without fome diffi. Vol IV. No. XXII.

213

culty: there are generally about four feet from the tip of one to the other. The neck is a foot in length, and the legs a foot and an half. The head and neck of the male are afh-coloured, and the back is barred tranfverfely with black, bright, and rufhcolour. The largest quill feathers are black; the belly white; and the tail confifting of twenty feathers, is marked with broad black bars.

Plutarch informs us, that the buftard is found in Lybia, in the environs of Alexandria, in Syria, Greece, Spain, and France; in the plains of Poitou and Champagne: they are often feen in flocks of fifty, or upwards in the extenfive downs of Salisbury Plain, in the heaths of Suffex and Cambridgeshire, the Dorsetfhire uplands, and as far as East Lothian, in Scotland.

In thofe extenfive plains, where the fportfman cannot conceal himfelf in woods or hedges, the buftard enjoys an indolent fecurity. They feed on the berries which grow among the heath, and the large earth-worms which appear in great quantities on the downs, before fun.rifing, in fummer. In vain the fowler attempts to creep forward to approach them; they have always faithful centinels placed on proper eminences, to watch, and warn the flock, on the fmalleft appearance of alarm or danger.

But though these animals are feldom in any danger from the gun, they are frequently run down by greyhounds. Naturally voracious and greedy, they fometimes facrifice their fafety to their appetite, and become fo fat, that they are unable to fly without great preparation.. When the greyhound, therefore, comes within a certain distance,

E e

the

214

Natural Hiftory of the Bustard.

the bustard runs off flapping its wings, and endeavouring to get air enough under him to rife: in the mean time the enemy makes his rapid approaches, and the bird has not time to owe his fafety to its flight; it therefore continues on foot till it has got a fufficient way before the dog for flight, or till it is overtaken.

To answer the purpofe of a neft, they fcrape a hole in the earth, and fometimes line it with a little long grafs or straw. The hen lays but two eggs, which are in fize like thofe of the goofe, though of a pale olive-brown colour, marked with darker fpots. She fits about thirty days, and her young run about as foon as they are delivered from the fhell.

We are told by Elian that there is no contrivance fo fimple as not to fit for the capture of the When the perfecuted mother buftard: he alfo relates that, finis apprehenfive of the hunters, and difturbed from her neft, fhe is faid to take her eggs under her wings, and convey them to a

however, that, following the inftinct of all the birds of its kind, it ufually makes its neft in the corn, where there is not a probability of its being much difturbed.

the kingdom of Pontus, the foxes made ufe of a curious ftratagem to take them the fox elevated his bushy tail, and with it imi-place of safety. It is certain tated, as much as poffible, the motions of the birds neck; the buftards (continues he) which miftook it for a bird of their fpecies, approached it without apprehenfion, aud became the prey of that crafty animal. All Befides the delicacy of the this, however, fuppofes infinite buftard,s flefh, the quills are vacunning in the fox, infinite ftu-luable for making pens; and they pidity in the bird, and perhaps infinite credulity in the writer.

As there are few places where they can find proper fecurity and food, they generally continue near their old haunts, and are feldom feen wandering above twenty or thirty miles from their home. Their provifion is replete with moisture, which enables them to live upon these dry plains (where there are hardly any fprings of water) a confiderable time without drinking. Nature has alfo furnished the males with an admirable maga. zine, for their fecurity against thirst; it is a pouch, the entrance of which lies immediately under the tongue, and is fufficiently capacious to hold about feven quarts of water. This is doubtless, filled upon proper occafions, to fupply the hen when fitting, or the young till they become capable of flying.

are much efteemed by anglers, who ufc them as floats; for, being spotted with black, these fpots are fuppofed to appear as flies to the fifh, and are confequently alluring to them.

That which is called the little buftard, differs but in fize from the preceding; its magnitude is about equal to that of the pheafant, and its length about feventeen inches. This fpecies is found in many parts of Europe, though it is by no means com mon in France, and has not been feen above three or four times in England.

There are fix or feven fpecies of foreign birds of this kind; among thefe are the rhaad and the houbara, both African birds, and both crested; they are alfo different from ours by fome va rieties in their plumage. The bustard is not known in America,

THE