2 70 NOTES TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



from pictures of the Italian, Flemish, Dutch, and English Schools," 

 published in that year. 



There is a mezzotint of a falconer by Reynolds from a picture 

 by Northcote, R.A. (said to be a portrait of the painter himself), 

 which was evidently suggested by Titian's portrait. Even the 

 dog by the falconer's side has been introduced. 



XXII. Falconers of Turkestan, with the trained 

 Eagle, or Berkut. From a sketch made by Colonel 

 (now General) T. E. Gordon, in Eastern Turkestan. 



See pp. i8o, 192, 193, For an account of the way in which 

 the Golden Eagle, or Berkut (old Persian, Bargut), is trained and 

 flown in some parts of the East at deer, hares, foxes, and wolves, 

 the reader may be referred to Atkinson's " Travels in the Regions 

 of the Upper and Lower Amoor," i860, pp. 58, 492 (where 

 the native name of the bird is phonetically spelt bearcoot), and 

 to Colonel T. E. Gordon's " Roof of the World," a narrative 

 of a journey over the high plateaus of Thibet to the Russian 

 frontier, and the Oxus sources on Pamir, 1876 (pp. 68, 72, 78, 

 85). In this entertaining volume, wherein the bird is styled 

 burgoot and burgut, Colonel Gordon gives a report of a journey 

 eastward from Kashgar to Maralbashi towards Aksu (39° 46' N.) 

 made by Captain J. Biddulph, the first European traveller in that 

 direction. From Maralbashi (the stag's haunt), known also as 

 Burchuk and Lai Musjid, he went to Charwagh, a village fourteen 

 miles on the Aksu road. " Here," he says, " I had good sport 

 shooting gazelles and pheasants, which abounded, and I also 

 saw the burgoots, or trained eagles, kill gazelles and foxes. 1 was 

 not fortunate enough to see them kill a wolf, though they were 

 twice flown, but the animals on both occasions being in thick 

 bush jungle, and at a great distance, the birds did not sight 

 them. Their owners, however, spoke of it as an ordinary 

 occurrence. When the jungle is not too high they sight their 

 prey at a great distance, and sweep up to it without any apparent 

 effort, however fast it may be going. Turning suddenly when 

 over its head, they strike it with unerring aim. If a fox, they 

 grasp its throat with one powerful talon, and seize it round the 

 muzzle with the other, keeping the jaws closed with an iron 

 grasp, so that the animal is powerless." [A vignette of an eagle 



