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Falconry is the sport
of hunting with a trained bird of prey. It is also the demanding art of
training a predatory bird that is by nature wary of people to hunt cooperatively
with a human partner. While the sport has a 4,000 - year history, its
glory days were indisputably the medieval period. Falconry then was a
court sport in England and France, and the most desirable birds were the
legal property of the nobility. Paintings from the medieval period show
gorgeously attired ladies and gentlemen riding forth for a day of hunting,
hooded falcons on their embroidered gloves. While this presentation centers
around live birds used in falconry, it is not a flight demonstration but
a history-rich look at an ancient sport. Focusing on the medieval period,
it explains the characteristics of the birds of prey used, how the sport
reflected the lifestyle of the time, and the historical reasons behind
falconry's rise and fall. |
