HEVIEW. 513 



least lately, by the Amirs of Sind and the family of H. H. Aga 

 Khan. It is " very big and bold and handsome," the " Shah Baz " 

 of native falconers, and well deserves the name. It is a fine hawk 

 for birds of short flight, hares, and (it is said) even gazelles. In the 

 last case it was used along with greyhounds. But probably this 

 sport, well described by the late Sir R, Burton, as seen in Sind, is 

 now extinct. 



Astur badiusj the Shikra of good native falconers, is a little goshawk, 

 found throughout our province, " except in thick forest, or in desert," 

 and our commonest trained hawk, but only '' up to " game of short 

 flight and small size. Astur soloensis is a hawk of Further India and 

 the Malayan and Chinese region, never found with us. 



The Crested Goshawk) Lophospizias trivirgatus) is a forest bird 

 that may occur in our Ghat region, Khandesh, or Mount Abu. 



The genus Accipiter is almost cosmopolitan, but we have only 

 two species, of which the first is a winter visitor, the English sparrow- 

 hawk, A, nisus. The other, A. virgatus, the " Besra " of native 

 falconers, is a resident, a forest bird, slightly inferior in size, but con- 

 sidered a gamer bird. Trained birds of both species can, sometimes, 

 kill partridges and pigeons, but that is " the length of their tether." 



After the hawks, which are essentially carnivorous birds, we have 

 the Honey-Buzzards, which are insectivorous mainly. They do eat 

 honey, but much more young bees, old bees when they get them, and 

 the like insects. They are said also to rob other birds' nests of ego-s 

 and young. We have one species (Pernis cristatus) in our Peninsu- 

 lar districts, where well wooded, not much in deep forest. 



Passing over a few birds not found in our province, we come to the 

 true falcons, perhaps the finest birds of prey, though some sea-eagles 

 and hawk-eagles, with greater size, have almost equal beauty and 

 spirit. The falcons, as well as the typical hawks, may '^ have from 

 time immemorial been trained " by man. But the truth is that we 

 do not know much about the origin of falconry. The Bible is silent on 

 the subject, though the Arabs, who represent, on the same theatre, the 

 primitive pastoral Hebrews, are now great falconers. '' A falconer 

 bearing a hawk on his wrist appeared to be represented on a bas-relief " 

 which Sir A. H. Layard saw at Khorsabad. But that is all that he 

 (who understood falconry as now there practised) has to saj about 

 23 



