Note 557 — FALCONRY.

“The Indians hunt hares and foxes in the following manner. They do not employ dogs, but eagles, crows, and, above all, kites, which they catch when young, and train for that purpose. They let loose a tame hare or fox, with a piece of flesh fastened to it, and suffer these birds to fly after it, in order to seize the flesh, which they are fond of, and which, on their return, they receive as the reward of their labour. When thus instructed to pursue their prey, they are sent after wild foxes and hares in the mountains; these they follow in hopes of obtaining their usual food, and soon catch them and bring them back to their masters, as we are informed by Ctesias. Instead of the flesh, however, which was fastened to the tame animals, they receive as food the entrails of the wild ones which they have caught.”—Æliani Hist. Animal. lib. iv. c. 26. Compare with this what Pluche says in Nature Displayed, and the accounts given by Chardin and Gemelli Carreri.