322 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
BIRDS. 
17. Tue Eactr (Aerés) 
Aquila chrysaetus, Linn.—Golden Eagle. Called Birkut in E. Turke- 
stan ; Karakash, in Kashgaria. 
Atlian® writes, that ‘‘hares and foxes are hunted by the Indians in 
the manner following :—They do not require dogs for the purpose, but, 
taking the young of eagles, ravens, and of kites (or, as Lassen trans- 
lates it, eagles, crows, and vultures), they rear and train them to 
pursue these animals, by subjecting them to a course of instruction, as 
follows,”’ &e. 
Lassen suggests that Alian,* by mistake, substituted vultures for 
falcons. This is probable, since no true vulture could, by any amount 
of training, be taught to catch either a hare or a fox, the structure of 
their feet and claws being unadapted for the purpose. But the doubt 
expressed by the same author, as to whether eagles can be so taught, 
has been quite set at rest by a quotation from Sir Joseph Fayrer, 
made by Mr. M‘Crindle,*’ to the effect that when the Prince of Wales 
visited Lahore there were among the people collected about the 
Government House some Afghans, with large eagles, trained to pull 
down deer and hares. They were perched on their wrists ike hawks. 
It may be added, that the members of Sir Douglas Forsyth’s mission 
to Yarkand and Kashgar, in 1872-3, brought back full accounts of 
the employment of golden eagles for the same purpose in those 
regions. 
Further, Dr. Scully, in a Paper entitled, ‘‘ A Contribution to the 
Ornithology of Eastern Turkestan,’ speaking of the golden eagle, says : 
‘«The trained bird is very common in Eastern Turkestan, every gover- 
nor of a district usually having several. It is said to live and breed in 
the hills south of Yarkand, and near Khoten, where the young birds are 
caught, to be trained for purposes of falconry. . .. . The trained 
karakash is always kept hooded when it is indoors, except when about 
to be fed, and the method of carrying it to the chase is the following: 
The man who is to carry the eagle is mounted on a pony, and has his 
right hand and wrist protected by a thick gauntlet. A crutch, con- 
sisting of a straight piece of stick, carrying a curved piece of horn or 
wood—the concavity being directed upwards—is attached to the front 
of the saddle; the man grasps the cross piece of the crutch with his 
gloved hand, and the eagle then perches on his wrist,” &e. 
45 Ancient India, p. 48. 46 Toc. cit-, p. 81. 
SL iocsncitemp. Ole ‘8 Stray Feathers, vol. iv., 1876, p. 123. 
