402 A Description of Ktiinaon, [Sess. 



successful. The cold weather was comiug on, and cholera 

 disappeared as if by magic. Three days after, I packed up 

 my things and started for home. I heard subsequently that 

 when the cholera had completely disappeared, Harli returned 

 to her old village life and her obscure position. I never saw 

 her again. 



While resident in Kumaon, the bird-life of the district was 

 to me a most interesting study : I shall therefore now go on 

 to notice somewhat particularly the 



Birds. 



In Britain, in olden times, one of the most popular amuse- 

 ments was hawking ; but this sport is now so completely 

 forgotten in these islands that few people know anything 

 about it, beyond, perhaps, what they may have read in Sir 

 Walter Scott's charming novel, ' The Abbot.' In India, how- 

 ever, hawking is still as popular as it was in our own country 

 in the middle ages. Every Indian noble, whether Nawab or 

 Eajah, Mohammedan or Hindu, keeps hawks, and in the 

 days of the East India Company many English officers also 

 kept them. Most of the hawks are brought from Afghan- 

 istan, but a considerable number are caught in the Himalayas. 

 Indian falconers divide these birds into two groups : (1), 

 " Siyah Chaslim," or black-eyed — the falcons; (2), " Goolab 

 Chashm," or red-eyed — the hawks. Of the falcons the pere- 

 grine is most esteemed. There are two species of peregrine, 

 the common and the royal, which are trained to hunt herons, 

 egrets, storks, cranes, and partridges. Next to the peregrine 

 in value is the lanner, with a longer tail than the former. 

 It is chiefly trained to hunt crows, egrets, partridges, and 

 florikin. Among the smaller falcons there are three common 

 species: (1), the hobby, with dark plumage; (2), the merlin, 

 with light plumage ; (3), the claret-coloured kestrel. Of 

 these, the merlin is the only one much used for hawking 

 purposes. It is flown at quails, partridges, minas, and the 

 Indian jay. The Indian species is called the red- headed 

 merlin, and is a little larger than the English merlin. Of 

 the hawks there are two great groups — the large hawks, re- 



