336 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
hunting-hawks, which seemed the genuine descendants of the ‘falcon 
gentle,’ which was wont to afford such rare sport to our ancestors in the 
Middle Ages. * * * * The hawk used for this purpose is not the 
ordinary large Egyptian one, which hovers over the city of Cairo, poised in 
air on its wide wings, or circling around in search of quarry, but a smaller 
and fiercer bird, desert born and bred, with keen eyes and sharp talons, of 
which the larger brother stands in wholesome awe. ‘These birds, trained 
much as were the medieval falcons, seem to love the chase as much as 
their master, although their quarry be not the Heron, but the Gazelle. 
Their services were only brought into requisition after the chase had 
continued some time, and as an adjunct to the pursuit of men, dogs, and 
horses, all concentrating their energies against the life and liberty of the 
most lovely, graceful, and inoffensive of wild creatures, almost the sole 
tenants of these arid waters. After advancing a few miles into the desert, 
which presents one flat, dead, unbroken level of hard gritty soil (not sand), 
unrelieved by any shrub, grass, flower, or tree, bounded only by the 
horizon, and producing almost the illusion of a sea view, suddenly half a 
dozen slender, shapely forms spring up, and stand in bold relief against the 
sky, with heads erect, like statuary, some half mile distant. The sight 
seems at once to infuse new fire and vigour into the horses, dogs, and men, 
all of whom are immediately launched like thunderbolts in the direction of 
the quarry, which, pausing motionless for a moment, break into full flight 
the next, bounding marvellous distances each spring, and soon leaving even 
the fleet greyhounds toiling hopelessly in the rear; the distance between 
them visibly increasing, as the tireless Gazelles almost fly forwards, 
inspired by fear. The scene now becomes most animated, exciting, and 
picturesque, with the floating burnouses of the Bedouin or Egyptian riders, 
and the gay attire of horse and man, and the gallant Arab coursers 
stretching out to full speed with expanded nostrils and protruding eyes, 
and the feathery tails of the Syrian greyhounds waving like banners as 
they bound after the flying Gazelles. But vain are the efforts of all their 
enemies to gain upon, or even to keep pace with, the graceful children of 
the Desert. Horses, men, and dogs are falling rapidly behind; and even 
the forms of the Gazelle’s are becoming indistinct, and with difficulty 
discernible, except to the eagle-eyes of the prince and his Bedouins, when a 
new ally is summoned to the assistance of the hunters, and a new foe 
launched at the heads of the triumphant fugitives. Rising in his shovel- 
stirrups, in full career, with the grace and dexterity of an Hastern rider, 
Prince Halim, slipping off the hood from the head of the hawk he carries 
on his right hand, with a peculiar shrill cry launches the bird into the air in 
the direction of the fast disappearing quarry. ‘Thus released, the hawk 
circles rapidly upward until almost lost to sight, a mere speck suspended 
in blue ether, and seemingly motionless in the cloudless sky, blazing under 
