3646 Remarks on a Critique 



Remarks on a Critique of the l Falconry of the Indus.'' 

 By Richard F. Burton, Esq., Indian Army. 



E. I. U. Service Club, 



14, St. James's Square. 



Sir, 



I have the honour to forward the few following remarks 

 upon a critique which lately appeared in your valuable pages, (Zool. 

 3569) ; trusting to your kindness and impartiality for their insertion. 



You " entertain grave doubts " concerning the story of the Ukab or 

 vulture attacking the hawk. I have none. Although personally I never 

 witnessed one of these encounters, still, the hundred stories which I 

 have heard from falconers in every part of Scinde, force me to believe 

 that they sometimes take place. I might as well doubt that pigs kill 

 children. One could scarcely expect to witness the scene, on account 

 of the surprising care with which the falconer guards his charge. But 

 I have frequently seen "preludes to dispute" between the Ukab and 

 hawk, over a quarry, and Sir Alexander Burnes, if memory serves me 

 aright, remarks the enmity with which they regard each other. 



Moreover, T hold the Ukab to be a true vulture. It has the eyes 

 even with the head, a bare neck, a habit of walking with half-extended 

 wings, and the real vulturine fondness for carrion. Whether it does 

 or does not constitute a distinct genus, I am unable, at present, to 

 decide. But about this, as well as the other birds, I will adopt your 

 suggestion, merely premising that the labour will most likely be in 

 vain. The "unwise custom" of giving to unknown birds names "fa- 

 miliar as household words " to English ears, is rather to be charged 

 upon the Anglo-Indian race, than upon an humble individual of that 

 species. We all translate Bulbul by nightingale, call a kind of crow 

 a Malabar pheasant, and " prate" of the Cheel as a kite. 



Which leads me to another consideration. At page 3569 of your 

 excellent journal, I read : — 



" When a man is so delighted with having made out that goolab, in 

 some of the thousand and one dialects in which India rejoices, is the 

 equivalent of yellow in English, that he must needs prate of a hawk's 

 having a goolab eye, we find his affectation all but insufferable, and 

 devoutly wish that he were confined to the use of plain English for 

 the remaining term of his natural life." 



I exclaim, Alas ! that the British critic will not waste over his cri- 

 tique as many minutes as the author criticized spends days in compo- 



