335 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
GAZELLE-HAWKING IN Eeypr.—Whatever doubts might have existed in 
the minds of the incredulous as to the ability of a hawk to capture so large 
a quarry as a Gazelle, they were effectually dispelled when Captain Burton 
published his ‘ Falconry in the Valley of the Indus ;’ and the frontispiece 
to this book, one of the most spirited and life-like drawings ever furnished 
by the pencil of Joseph Wolf, depicts a female Goshawk with uplifted wings 
grasping the head and face of a Gazelle, which she is pulling down ina 
perfect cloud of dust. It is unnecessary here to criticise this book further 
than to observe that considering the author did not profess to be either a 
naturalist or a falconer, and merely related what he had seen, he has made 
singularly few mistakes in dealing with a very technical subject. For the 
present purpose it suffices to remind the reader that Captain Burton has 
described Gazelle-hawking in the Valley of the Indus, where the hawk 
employed for the purpose is the Goshawk. A near approach to the quarry 
is made either by stalking or by rapid riding under cover of some kind, 
and the Goshawk is flown from the hand at a comparatively short distance 
from its prey. Those who are acquainted with the habits of the Goshawk 
know that on quitting the hand it flies directly at the quarry in a straight 
line, and does not mount to a height and “stoop,” like a falcon or a tiercel. 
In Egypt, it would seem, a different practice obtains, and a different hawk 
is employed. The author of ‘The Khedive’s Egypt,’ referring to this mode 
of capturing the Gazelle (p. 255), thus describes the sport:—‘* The Syrian 
Greyhound is a very beautiful specimen of the race; smaller, and with less 
length of limb than the English Greyhound, and consequently with a 
shorter stride, the rapidity of his movements and the toughness and 
tenacity of his muscles, render him no unworthy scion of the stock to which 
his British cousin belongs. Moreover, his long, feathery, tufted tail seems 
to act as a rudder to him, when in full flight across those breezy plains—an 
advantage which marks the difference between the Syrian and other 
greyhounds, to whom, in other respects, he bears the closest affinity. In 
the eyes and faces of the choicest specimens of these dogs there shines an 
expression of winning and almost human intelligence; yet, once launched 
in pursuit of game, they are as bloodthirsty as the sleuth-hound. The dog 
in Egypt, as throughout the Hast, with this exception, is a homeless and 
houseless vagabond, and semi-savage, prowling in packs, acting as scavenger 
only, and never domesticated, because considered ‘ unclean,’ by Mussulman 
law and custom. The Prince Halim had the conrage to brave this 
prejudice, and kept his greyhounds for the chase. But he also kept 
another and more curious class of creatures for the hunting of the Gazelle, 
probably the fastest in its movements of any wingless animal, viz., his 
