316 " THE ZOOLOGIST. 



must always be taken young, but Mr. Kipling states that the only 

 point where real skill comes into play is in the first capture of 

 the adult animal when it has already learned the swift bounding 

 onset, its one accomplishment. The young Cheetah, he says, is 

 not worth catching, for it has not learned its trade, nor can it be 

 taught in captivity. It is much the same with Hawks ; falconers 

 who know their business will always prefer a wild-caught " pas- 

 sage-hawk " to an " eyess," or nestling. 



With an eye to the picturesque, Mr. Kipling has not omitted 

 to write of this sport as practised in India; and the subjoined 

 extract will not only convey his own impressions on the subject, 

 but will serve to give an idea of his style of writing. He 



" Falconry, which is still a favourite sport in Sind and Northern India, 

 is too extensive to be more than glanced at. The literature of the subject 

 is just as fantastic as the writings of our forefathers in Europe; as in our 

 old falconry books, Hawks are broadly described as light- or dark-eyed, 

 round- or long-winged, noble or ignoble, and the sport is considered in the 

 highest degree aristocratic. Sir Richard F. Burton is the only English 

 writer who can claim to be an authority on the subject in its literary as 

 well as in its practical aspect." 



This remarkable statement strikes us as scarcely accurate. 

 Sir Richard Burton's only claim to be regarded as an authority 

 on this subject rests upon the fact that he once published a little 

 book entitled * Falconry in the Valley of the Indus,' in which he 

 recorded the impressions produced upon his mind by having 

 witnessed something of the practice of hawking in Sind. But, 

 so far as can be gathered from his book, he had very little know- 

 ledge of the literature of the subject ; and, to judge by the many 

 errors into which his pen has led him, he can have had but little 

 practical acquaintance with the sport, beyond what might be 

 acquired by any intelligent " looker-on." Mr. Kipling would 

 never have ventured upon the above-quoted assertion had he 

 himself been acquainted with any of the English or French 

 treatises on Falconry which have appeared during the last twenty 

 years. 



" The identity of the Indian apparatus of the sport with that of Europe 

 strikes even the uninstructed. The hawk's hood of soft deer-skin, prettily 

 embroidered with silk and gold, the falconer's gloves, jesses, lures, aud 



