224 HAWKING. 



but the quarry undermost and concealed from 

 view almost by the outspread wings of the hawk, 

 which fiercely pecks at the dying partridge. 

 ''Ao bucha," ''Come, my child," cries the falcon- 

 er in a tender tone of endearment, and turning 

 the poor partridge on its back, draws his knife 

 across its throat, says the "bismilla," without 

 which animal life is never taken, then splitting 

 the head of the partridge, he gives the brains 

 to the hawk, and occasionally the heart and 

 breast. The partridge, in open ground, sel- 

 dom holds up above a minute, but where 

 there are thorn bushes it sometimes baffles its 

 pursuer for half an hour. Grey partridges are 

 looked on as unclean birds, from preferring to 

 feed on the roads rather than the grain-fields. 

 The hda tetiir^ or black partridge, is a splendid 

 bird, about the size of a hen pheasant, its 

 plumage somewhat resembling the English star- 

 ling, every feather being dotted with silvery 

 white. The cock birds have long spm"s, by 

 which sometimes the hawks are injm-ed in a 

 death struggle. In a very short time the little 

 Shikrahs had killed each five or six partridges, 

 in the whole about twenty brace, when the 

 Meer turned off towards some low ground, with 



