Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small and larger animals are hunted. There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon. In modern falconry, the red-tailed hawk, the Harris's hawk, the peregrine falcon are some of the more used birds of prey; the practice of hunting with a conditioned falconry bird is called hawking or gamehawking, although the words hawking and hawker have become used so much to refer to petty traveling traders, that the terms falconer and falconry now apply to most use of trained birds of prey to catch game. Many contemporary practitioners still use these words in their original meaning, however. In early English falconry literature, the word falcon referred to a female peregrine falcon only, while the word hawk or hawke referred to a female hawk. A male hawk or falcon was referred to as a tiercel as it was one third less than the female in size.

Evidence suggests that the art of falconry may have begun in Mesopotamia, with the earliest accounts dating to 2,000 BC. There are some raptor representations in the northern Altai, western Mongolia; the falcon was a symbolic bird of ancient Mongol tribes. There is some disagreement about whether such early accounts document the practice of falconry or are misinterpreted depictions of humans with birds of prey. During the Turkic Period of Central Asia, concrete figures of falconer on horseback were described on the rocks in Kyrgyz. Falconry was introduced to Europe around AD 400, when the Huns and Alans invaded from the east. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen is acknowledged as the most significant wellspring of traditional falconry knowledge, he is believed to have obtained firsthand knowledge of Arabic falconry during wars in the region. He obtained a copy of Moamyn's manual on falconry and had it translated into Latin by Theodore of Antioch. Frederick II himself made corrections to the translation in 1241 resulting in De Scientia Venandi per Aves.

King Frederick II is most recognized for his falconry treatise, De arte venandi cum avibus. Written himself toward the end of his life, it is accepted as the first comprehensive book of falconry, but notable in its contributions to ornithology and zoology. De arte venandi cum avibus incorporated a diversity of scholarly traditions from east to west, is one of the earliest challenges to Aristotle's explanations of nature. Falconry was a popular sport and status symbol among the nobles of medieval Europe, the Middle East, Mongolian Empire. Many historical illustrations left in Rashid al Din's "Compendium chronicles" book described falconry of the middle centuries with Mongol images. Falconry was restricted to the noble classes due to the prerequisite commitment of time and space. In art and in other aspects of culture such as literature, falconry remained a status symbol long after it was no longer popularly practiced; the historical significance of falconry within lower social classes may be underrepresented in the archaeological record, due to a lack of surviving evidence from nonliterate nomadic and non-agrarian societies.

Within nomadic societies like the Bedouin, falconry was not practiced for recreation by noblemen. Instead, falcons were trapped and hunted on small game during the winter months in order to supplement a limited diet. In the UK and parts of Europe, falconry reached its zenith in the 17th century, but soon faded in the late 18th and 19th centuries, as firearms became the tool of choice for hunting. Falconry in the UK had a resurgence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries during which time a number of falconry books were published; this revival led to the introduction of falconry in North America in the early 20th century. Colonel R. Luff Meredith is recognized as the father of North American falconry. Throughout the 20th century, modern veterinary practices and the advent of radio telemetry increased the average lifespan of falconry birds and allowed falconers to pursue quarry and styles of flight that had resulted in the loss of their hawk or falcon. 722–705 BC – An Assyrian bas-relief found in the ruins at Khorsabad during the excavation of the palace of Sargon II has been claimed to depict falconry.

In fact, it depicts an archer shooting at an attendant capturing a raptor. A. H. Layard's statement in his 1853 book Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon is "A falconer bearing a hawk on his wrist appeared to be represented in a bas-relief which I saw on my last visit to those ruins." 680 BC – Chinese records describe falconry. 355 AD – Nihon-shoki, a mythical narrative, records hawking first arriving in Japan from Baekje as of the 16th emperor Nintoku. 2nd–4th century – the Germanic tribe of the Goths learned falconry from the Sarmatians. 5th century – the son of Avitus, Roman Emperor 455–56, from the Celtic tribe of the Arverni who fought at the Battle of Châlons with the Goths against the Huns introduced falconry in Rome. 500 – a Roman floor mosaic depicts a falconer and his hawk hunting ducks. Early 7th century – Prey caught by trained dogs or falcons is considered halal in Quran. By this time falconry was alread

Alexander Henry Haliday was an Irish entomologist. He is known for his work on Hymenoptera and Thysanoptera, but worked on all insect orders and on many aspects of entomology. Haliday was born in County Down, Ireland. A boyhood friend of Robert Templeton, he divided his time between Ireland and Lucca, where he co-founded the Italian Entomological Society with Camillo Rondani and Adolfo Targioni Tozzetti, he was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, the Belfast Natural History Society, the Microscopical Society of London, the Galileiana Academy of Arts and Science, as well as a fellow of the Entomological Society of London. Alexander Haliday was among the greatest dipterists of the 19th century and one of the most renowned British entomologists, his achievements were in four main fields: description, higher taxonomy and biology. He erected many major taxa including the order Thysanoptera and the families Mymaridae and Ichneumonidae. Alexander Henry Haliday was born in Clifden, Holywood, a small seaside town in County Down, Ireland on November 21, 1806.

He was the eldest child of Dr William Marion Webster. Haliday had a brother named William Robert and a sister named Hortense, his father was the nephew and heir of Dr Alexander Henry Haliday, one of Belfast's best known physicians and political activists. The Haliday family was Protestant, though not religious, well-placed, holding 3,228 acres of farmland in County Antrim valued at £3,054.00 in 1820. The family owned properties in Holywood and Dublin and had a cloth merchant business and shipping interests; the Haliday family was related to the wealthy Luccan Pisani family, whom Haliday visited throughout his life. Haliday began his education at the Belfast Academical Institution, a school that had strong leanings towards natural history. Haliday studied Classics when he was twelve, Arithmetic when he was fourteen, Mathematics when he was sixteen, he learned several other subjects, including natural history from George Crawford Hyndman. Haliday left the Belfast Academical Institution and the family home in nearby Holywood at fifteen, moving to Dublin where he entered Trinity College in 1822.

He graduated in 1827, was awarded a gold medal in classics. Haliday went to Paris, where he stayed for a year. From 1825 to 1840, Haliday spent most of his time in Dublin, he returned to Clifden however, spent much of his time in London and sometimes visited Lucca, where he stayed with the Pisani family. Haliday spent much of his time collecting insects across England, most with Francis Walker and John Curtis at the Darent river and Southgate. In 1835, he joined William Thompson on a tour of England and Wales which began in London at the British Museum and the Zoological Gardens and included visits to Matlock, the Lake District, Crummock Water and Snowdon. From 1841 and 1848, Haliday spent most, if not all, of his time away from Ireland at the Pisani family home in Lucca. In 1842, he was appointed High Sheriff of Antrim and lived in the townland of Ballyhowne in the parish of Carnmoney. From 1854 to 1860, after having moved back to Dublin, Haliday was employed as an Invertebrate Zoology lecturer at the University of Dublin.

During these years, he edited parts of the Natural History Review, became a founding member of the Dublin University Geological Society, gave lectures at meetings of the Dublin University Zoological Association, curated the insect collections at the same University. He made regular visits to London staying with Henry Tibbats Stainton; these visits coincided with meetings of the Entomological Society of London. In February 1862, Haliday moved to Lucca. Following a trip to Sicily, he moved into Villa Pisani with his cousin, Mme. Pisani, her family. Expeditions and meetings with entomologists became much more frequent. From 1862 until his death, Haliday traveled across Italy collecting insects in the North, although he made two trips to Sicily. Various trips to Switzerland and Bavaria followed, in 1865, with Edward Perceval Wright, he made an entomological expedition to Portugal. In 1868 and 1870, he toured Sicily with Wright. Haliday is buried there in the English Cemetery. Haliday was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, the Microscopical Society of London, the Entomological Society of London, the Linnean Society of London, the Dublin University Zoological Association, the Dublin University Geological Society, the Italian Entomological Society, the Entomological Society of Stettin, the Galileiana Academy of Arts and Science.

Haliday worked with small insects. Study of the tiny parts required dissection, glass slide mounting, a high quality microscope, he acquired his equipment from the London microscopist Andrew Pritchard. Whole specimens were mounted on card using gum, the card being transfixed by an entomological pin of German manufacture. Since the descriptions were based on more than one specimen are sometimes ambiguous. Collecting and general methodology followed the instructions given by George Samouelle in The entomologist's useful compendium. On

Andrew Marvel was launched at Hull in 1812. From 1812 to 1835 she was a Greenland whaler, hunting the bowhead whale. Thereafter she became a merchantman, she foundered in September 1843 while on a voyage from Kingston-on-Hull to Saint John, New Brunswick. Andrew Marvell first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1812 with T. Orton, Marshall and trade Hull–Davis Strait; the following data are from Coltish: LR for 1836 showed Andrew Marvel with M. Wright, Hopwood and trade Hull–Davis Strait, changing to Hull–America, she had had a thorough repair in 1836. On 25 September 1843 Andrew Marvel was in a sinking state at 42°N 57°W when Lotus came on the scene and rescued the crew. Andrew Marvel had been sailing from Hull to Saint John. LR for 1844 carried the annotation "Lost" by her name. Coltish, William An account of the success of the ships at the Greenland and Davis Straits fisheries 1772-1842 inclusive. Munroe, Henry "Statistics of the Northern Whale Fisheries, from the Year 1772 to 1752", Journal of the Statistical Society of London, Vol. 17, pp.34–42