NOTE.-The latest contribution to the literature of Falconry in Russia will be found in three articles by the present writer, contributed to The Field in 1890, namely, " Trained Eagles," with an illustration of one, August 2; "The Eagles used by Russian Falconers," August 16; and "The Berkut of Turkestan," December 27.

Turkish.

337. BAZ NAMEH li Mahmud ibn Muhammed ul Bárchíní.

THE BOOK OF THE HAWK of Mahmud B. Md. ul Bárchíní. Fourteenth century.

This work, which appears to be an adaptation of the treatise described by Dr. Rieu (Cat. Persian MSS. in Brit. Mus., vol. ii. pp. 484, 485), is printed in Turkish, with a German translation, by Hammer Purgstall (No. 112), from a MS. at Milan. It was composed, he says, in the fourteenth century, and the Turkish author states that it was at first written in a civilised language, and was translated into Arabic, thence into Persian, and from Persian into Turkish.

It consists of 155 bábs, or sections, some of them very short ones, and after some confused traditions relative to the origin of Falconry, descriptions of the birds used, and notes on the method of feeding and training them, the greater portion of the treatise is devoted to an enumeration of the diseases to which hawks are supposed to be liable, and the remedies proposed for them.

Schlegel, who cites this work on the authority of Hammer Purgstall, is of opinion that the latter has failed in his attempt to identify the species of hawks referred to by their Turkish or Arabic names, and in this he is right. For example, the Shahin, can hardly be the Lanner; by this name Indian falconers designate the Peregrine. The Kartschal, if used (as the Turkish author states) to take Roe-deer, is not likely to be any species

N

of Harrier (Circus), as suggested by Hammer Purgstall. According to the Russian naturalist, Pallas (No. 326), the proper mode of spelling this word is Kara-tschagyl-i.e., "black eagle," which is said to be the Golden Eagle in the dark immature plumage; called also in Turkish Kara-Kusch or black bird, it is used by the Tartars, Calmucks, Mongols, and Tangutes for catching deer, wolves, and foxes, and is called by the Tartars Berkut or Barkut (Persian Bargut).

The Taghrul from the description given seems to be some kind of eagle, but cannot be, as Hammer Purgstall supposes, Pallas's Sea Eagle. It is probably the Tschagyl, above mentioned.

The Lesak, or Kilitsch Kusch, which he identifies with the Hobby, Schlegel thinks more likely to be the Kestrel, although he overlooks the fact that this bird is of no use to falconers.

In translating the Turkish word Tshakir (Arabic, Sakr)—i.e., the Saker by the German word Habicht (Goshawk), he has overlooked the statement of the Turkish author that his bird had dark eyes, not yellow ones, and was therefore a long-winged falcon, and not a short-winged hawk.

Finally, the bird referred to by the name Otilga, and considered doubtful by Hammer Purgstall (p. xvii.), is in all probability the Saker, which is known to the Kirghis as Itelgoe, or Itelgui, though according to Pallas (No. 326) this name is applied by the Bashkirs to the female Jerfalcon.

Mr. Sidney J. A. Churchill, now on the British Legation at Tehran, writes that he has examined a Persian MS. in the possession of Mr. J. Fargues, the Superintendent of the IndoEuropean Government Telegraph Department at Tehran, which appears to be a copy of the work referred to by Dr. Rieu, and that Haminer Purgstall's text is a Turki version of it. The MS. at Tehran was copied A.H. 1236—i.e., A.D. 1820. The author states that "his friends suggested that he should gather together the experience of masters of the craft, and their books, and that which was in accordance with the laws of Nature, composed by " various writers named by him, and dated in the years A.H. 569, 571, 590, and 592, equivalent respectively to A.D. 1173, 1175, 1193, and 1195. It is therefore a compilation. He adds that he had heard that books had been found in Baghdad, and that by royal orders the library had been removed to Alexandria; and that after Alexander a lady ascended the throne,

and removed the books to Antioch, where they remained until her son succeeded her as Sovereign of Constantinople. Orders were subsequently given for the library to be destroyed, but a man named Ibráhím Ben Hailán, of the Zání faith, got hold of some of the books and took them to Baghdad, where they were translated into Syriac. "I procured these books," he says, "and sought for somebody who understood them. Amongst others came a man of the Uzlug Turkish tribe from the sea-shore. The puny one knew all languages, and translated the book from the Syriac into our language." Then follows the origin of Falconry according to the ancient text.

338. KITAB MUKHTAS DARI li Sharef ud Din AlpArselán Garáblí. A.H. 915.

THE BOOK RELATING TO HAWKS of Sharef ud Din Alp Arselán Garáblí. A.H. 915-i.e., A.D. 1509.

This is No. 62 of Hammer Purgstall's Catalogue (p. xxxii.), wherein only the Turkish title is given. His No. 63 is the Baz Nameh, or Book of the Hawk, of Mahmud ibn Muhammed ul Bárchíní, of which the entire Turkish text is printed with a German translation as above noticed. He omits the author's statement that he is better known as "Kátib Turkiyeh," or the Turkish Scribe.

In a volume of miscellanies preserved in the British Museum, Add. MSS. 23,594, there is a Turkish treatise on Falconry apparently of the eighteenth century. It consists of 84 folios, and is described as :

339. A TREATISE ON ANIMALS USED IN THE CHASE, viz., Hawks, Hounds, and Hunting Leopards; their training and the treatment of their diseases. Translated from the Arabic by Murtezá, known as Nazmí Zádeh with the heading Báz Námeh, the Book of the Hawk.

The Turkish translator states that he wrote this version, A.H. 1115 (A.D. 1703), by desire of 'Ali Páshá, Governor of Baghdad. The Arabic text was contained in a recent copy of

the second part of the work of Isá B. 'Ali B. Hasan al-Asedí; and Nazmí Zádeh, unable to procure the first part, supplied some additional matter from other sources. An imperfect copy of the original work is described in the Catalogue of Arabic MSS. in Brit. Mus., p. 634 b. See also Leclerc, Histoire de la Médecine Arabe, i. p. 503.

The work is divided into a great number of small sections, termed babs, but not numbered. The first contains traditions respecting those who first made use of birds of prey for the chase, fol. 2 b. The second describes the various kinds of hunting birds, fol. 4 a. The rest of the contents may be briefly described as follows:-Training and Feeding of Hawks, fol. 7 b; Diseases of Hawks and their Treatment, fol. 14a; On the Nature and Good Qualities of Hounds, fol. 66 b; Diseases of Hounds and their Treatment, fol. 71a; Diseases of the Cheetah, or Hunting Leopard, fol. 81 b.

NOTE. For an interesting account of Hawking as practised in the province of Cilicia, Turkey in Asia, where the Goshawk (Turkish, doghan) is chiefly employed, the reader may be referred to a volume by William Burckhardt Barker (son of John Barker, who died at Suwaidyah, near Antioch, in 1850, and godson of the eminent traveller and oriental scholar Louis Burckhardt), entitled "Lares and Penates: or, Cilicia and its Governors; being a short historical account of that Province from the earliest times to the present day." 8vo. London, 1853. The observations on Falconry will be found pp. 284-298. Besides the Goshawk, the Turkomans train the Peregrine (Turkish, Sheheen), the Lanner (Turkish, Seifee), and the Sparrowhawk (Turkish, Atonajia), while the Jerfalcon, or, it may be, the Saker (Turkish, Songhar), is said to be sometimes taken in the north of Asia Minor (p. 297). But the Goshawk is the favourite bird, as it is found to be the most useful, and best suited to the nature of the country.

"The Goshawk," says this writer (p. 290), "when properly broken in, requires little or no attention; his master need keep no servants or falconer to attend upon him, and carry him day and night on the hand, which is requisite with the Peregrine; if in proper trim, he is ready to hunt, and you can count upon him

and fly him as often as you please in the course of a day. I do not ever recollect seeing my hawks done up from flight after flight, for six hours consecutively; and I have known a Goshawk belonging to Rizu Kuli Mirza Nayebel Ayaly, a Persian prince residing at Bagdad, take twenty-one Francolins consecutively. The Prince assured me, and I firmly believe him, that he made sure of the quarry every time he let him fly from his hand. I have myself taken four hares, and a dozen Francolins, with several minor birds, in one day; and I invariably found my Goshawk improve by exercise-the more I hunted him, the more he was anxious to continue the sport."

Persian.

For the transcription of the Persian and Arabic titles the writer is indebted to Mr. SYDNEY A. J. CHURCHILL, on the British Legation at Tehran. In his absence from England the proof sheets have been submitted to the eminent orientalist Dr. RIEU, who has most obligingly revised them.

340. KITÁB 'Ali Kámeh Khorasani.

THE BOOK of 'Ali Kameh the Khorasáni-i.e., the native of Khorasan.

This is the first (No. 47) of three Persian treatises on Falconry, of which the titles only are given by Hammer Purgstall (No. 112) in Persian characters (Nos. 47, 48, 49), here transliterated by the kindness of Mr. Sidney A. J. Churchill, of the Persian Embassy.

341. KITAB Jemálí Muhammed Ganjeví Samáni,

A.H. 540.

THE BOOK of Jemálí Muhammed of Ganjeh (E. Caucasus) the Samani. A.H. 540-i.e., A.D. 1145.

No. 48 of Hammer Purgstall.