EARLY FALCONRY EVINDENCE IN PERU,
....... the writer and historian Inca Garcilazo de la Vega was familiar with falconry; his half-Spaniard blood leading him to live in Spain. In his book Comentarios Reales de los Incas (1616), he wrote about the wide variety of animal species found in Peru and the resemblance of some birds compared to others found in Europe. Among them, the Inca Garcilazo de la Vega mentions the unmistakable Peregrine falcon: “Those that are in my land (Spain, he must have considered himself Spaniard) and called Nebli are (in Peru) darker in color”. Old writings provide proof that there was some falconry being practiced in Peru during the 16th and 17th Centuries. De la Vega also wrote: “A falconer from Seville, Spain, who was proud of his falconry skills, trained a Nebli (PEFA). The falcon came large distances to the fist and lure but he couldn´t kill any prey with it, then he desperate upon his failure. This occurred at Cusco, Peru, in 1557. It is uncertain, but may be the oldest evidence of falconry in America. Another chronicler, Huaman Poma, wrote (1616): “Indians. Hunters, rather than lazy or loafing players, should have hunting as their job”. In another paragraph he wrote: “Indians should be hunters, Piscocamayoc . Yututa, pisacata, quiyota, tazaypac mascani (I´m looking for a partridge, a big partridge, a kite to fulfill my request). Indians should have falcons, hawks they call guaman and breed good hunting dogs…..”
Oscar Beingolea, unpublished notes
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