no difficulty in making such a supposition as this, since the
Assyrians have left us an evidence of their skill as marksmen which
implies even greater dexterity. The game which they principally sought
in the districts where they occasionally killed the hare and the gazelle
seems to have been the partridge; and this game they had to bring down
when upon the wing. We see the sportsmen in the sculptures aiming their
arrows at the birds as they mount into the air [PLATE CXXIV., Fig. 21,]
and in one instance we observe one of the birds in the act of falling to
the ground, transfixed by a well aimed shaft. Such skill is not uncommon
among savage hunting tribes, whose existence depends on the dexterity
with which they employ their weapons; but it is rarely that a people
which has passed out of this stage, and hunts for sport rather than
subsistence, retains its old expertness.

Hunting the hare with dogs was probably not very common, as it is only
in a single instance that the Assyrian remains exhibit a trace of it. On
one of the bronze dishes discovered by Mr. Layard at Nimrud may be seen
a series of alternate dogs and hares, which shows that coursing was not
unknown to the Assyrians. [PLATE CXXIV., Fig. 3.] The dog is of a kind
not seen elsewhere in the remains of Assyrian art. The head bears a
resemblance to that of the wolf; but the form generally is that of a
coarse grayhound, the legs and neck long, the body slim, and the tail
curved at the end; offering thus a strong contrast to the ordinary
Assyrian hound, which has been already represented more than once.

Nets may sometimes have been employed for the capture of small game,
such as hares and rabbits, since we occasionally see beaters or other
attendants carrying upon poles, which they hold over their shoulders,
nets of dimensions far too small for them to have been used in the
deer-hunts, with balls of string and pegs wherewith to extend them.
[PLATE CXXIV., Fig. 4.] The nets in this case are squared at the ends,
and seem to have been about eight or nine feet long, and less than a
foot in height. They have large meshes, and, like the deer nets, are
bordered both at top and bottom with a strong cord, to which the
net-work is attached. Like the classical [evodia], they were probably
placed across the runs of the animals, which, being baffled by then and
turned from their accustomed tracks, would grow bewildered, and fall an
easy prey to the hunters. Or, possibly, severa