Falcons and hawks are natural predators of birds and small mammals, but, although fierce, they can be tamed. Both are raptors—birds that kill live prey—and diurnal hunters, not nocturnal like owls. Hawks follow their prey at a low altitude, while falcons swoop down from above. Falcons have a wider wingspan than hawks. Falcons were more often used in medieval hunting, so the sport is generally known as falconry. Falconry was especially popular with ladies, since they were strong enough to ride a horse and hold a small bird. It was the most popular kind of hunting in medieval Spain and Italy, perhaps because game was smaller in these warmer, more settled regions where deer had become scarce.
Female falcons and hawks were always larger and stronger, and better hunters, than males. The largest of the raptors were the Greenland gyrfalcons, which were strong enough to catch water birds like cranes and herons, as well as small animals such as hares. They were heavy and hard to train, and they were relatively scarce. Peregrine falcons were more common; they were native to Africa and Europe and were the most common Spanish falcon. The merlin was a small peregrine hawk used to catch birds up to the size of quail. Some minor falcons are not well-known today. The hobby was a very small falcon, too small to use for useful prey but a good starting bird for beginning falconers. The saker was an Arabian falcon used in Spain, while the lanner was a bird whose range used to be all over Europe but is now restricted to the Mediterranean. Two raptors were true hawks, the goshawk and the sparrow hawk. The goshawk was larger and could catch hares as well as quail and even herons. The female sparrow hawk was a convenient size for many ladies to carry, and it could take down small birds like larks or even partridges.
Most birds were captured in the wild. Young adults were favored, since birds in the nest were easy to tame but did not know how to hunt. Falcons were gentler and easier to train than hawks, and some lords kept a favorite falcon in their chambers. All training followed basic principles that began with blinding the bird, either by covering its eyes with a leather hood or stitching its eyelids closed. The bird became dependent on human contact for food and grew tame. When its sight was restored, it was trained to fly away and return to its home and to sit on a keeper’s leather-gloved fist. It wore jesses—leather collars around its ankles—each with a ring to which a leash could be clipped. In many regions, birds wore tiny bells to help the falconer find them after they had seized prey. They were also trained to seize a lure that was shaped somewhat like a bird, with meat attached, and whirled through the air on a rope. This allowed the falconer to recapture a bird. The birds also had to be trained to go after prey they did not naturally favor. Large prey, such as herons and cranes, required special training to give the falcon or hawk confidence. Most cruelly, some royal trainers used crippled live cranes. In some training, raptors were permitted at first to eat the prey, but they were otherwise strictly trained to think that bits of meat always came from the hand of a human.
Falcons and hawks lived in mews, if they did not live in the trainer’s or lord’s chamber. The mews were kept clean, with sand sprinkled on the floor, so the keepers could tell if the birds were coughing up or excreting materials that indicated illness. The birds sat on perches both in the mews and in the cages (at that time spelled cadges) that transported them. The cages hung over a man’s shoulders on straps and were filled with padded perches. Because falcons were such expensive creatures, their veterinary care was the greatest of all medieval animals, even more than dogs and horses. All falcons and hawks molted once a year, losing all their feathers and growing them back. During this time, their keepers watched their health anxiously, and keepers employed favorite methods for helping the feathers regrow as quickly as possible.
In the hunt, both dogs and human assistants were needed. Spaniels and setters helped locate the birds or hares and could chase them into the air or into the open. Some falconers paid small children to beat the bushes so ground birds or hares would dart out. When the birds killed game across or in water, either the dogs or the beaters were expected to swim out and retrieve it. A well-trained falcon brought its catch back to its master’s feet. The bird was rewarded with meat tidbits, and the hunters cut up the game in an informal curée ritual so the raptor could be rewarded with pieces of its quarry.
Falconry was the main source of game birds such as partridge and quail. In some places, by the 15th century, commoners were catching and training falcons and hawks. Falconers also went to war with kings to provide entertainment and to catch game for dinner between battles. Expert falconers were in demand all over Europe and often found employment in foreign courts.