The booke of falconrie or havvking for the onely delight and pleasure of all noblemen and gentlemen : collected out of the best authors, aswell Italians as Frenchmen, and some English practises withall concerning falconrie / heretofore published by George Turbervile, Gentleman.

The Induction or Proeme to this Discourse, and Treatise of Hawking.

WE finde this a generall rule and obseruati∣on, and doe hold it for good in all Arts and Sciences, wherein men do trauell & busie themselues, either to the benefit of others, or to their owne priuate pleasure, and hu∣mors, in the beginning of their workes to lay downe y^e subiect of that whereof they meane to treate, which in very déede is nothing else but the ground & matter which doth moue them to write: which doth not onely fall out in all liberall sciences, and studies greatly accounted and reuerenced of the learned of al ages, but also in the base and grosser trades of men, dayly practised with the hand. As whē the Goldsmith doth determine with himselfe by curious and cunning art, to fashion a Iewell of any price and value, he is driuen to make choice of his mettall, eyther gold or siluer, whereon to bestow the excellencie of his art, which cannot be named by a more fite or conuenient tearme, then to be called the Subiect of his Science. Likewise here mine Author in this Treatise, and Booke of Falconrie, fol∣lowing the accoustomed order of the learned, and common practise of such as doe write, hath laid downe a Hawke, the Subiect of his deuise, of which he is determined at large to speake, with full shew and declaration of the true nature and properties of all Hawkes, as also such other matter as is in∣cident, and appertaining in any respect to that skill, of all o∣ther gentlemanly sports and practises, the most pleasant and

cōmendable. But before he doth aduentdure to deale, specially of any matter concerning Falconrie, to giue the Reader a per∣fect and absolute vnderstanding, both of his conceite, and of the knowledge of the thing, he thinketh it not besides his pur∣pose, but a matter most necessarie to the attainement of his deuise, To frame a generall diuision of all Hawkes & Birdes of prey, racking (as it were) and diuiding that one entire and generall name of a Hawke into many members and parts, the better thereby to display the true nature, quality, and con∣dition of a Hawke, as also y^e skill of Falconrie: for the whole being layd out into his members and parts, it shall be the more easie to come to the notice of that, whereof he is resolued to write, whose nature and substance is included in his parti∣cular members. Wherefore mine Author following that or∣der & prescribed rule of knowledg, hath vsed this methode, set∣ting downe to the view of the reader, in the very entrie and proheme of his worke, a manifest and generall diuision of Hawks, y^e better to decipher the speciall nature of each one Hawke in his own proper kind, which otherwise were very hard to do, by meanes of confusion of sundry names and termes, as also, the number of birds of prey.