“ Suddenly a buzzard (sār) appeared, and, stooping at the feathers in the kestril’s claws, got entangled in the nooses. Both birds fell to the ground. I galloped and secured the buzzard. Adding to the feathers, and strengthening the nooses, I half-seeled the buzzard’s eyes and treated it as I had treated the kestril. The buzzard rose in the air; the eagle saw it, and rose after it to rob from it those tempting feathers; little it dreamt that the hunter would be hunted. It rose and made a glorious stoop; then, its fingers inside those nooses, it fell to earth along with the buzzard. ”

“ Though slower on the wing than the Sparrow-hawk, the tawny variety can take with success any quarry that the former can. In fact, from a working point of view, there is little to choose between them. The Pīqū is, however, by far the hardier of the two, enduring with indifference the extremes of heat and cold. Flown in the hot weather from morning till night, it shows no signs of distress, but rather seems to get brisker and brisker after each successive flight: it is impervious to fatigue. It is certainly quite ten times hardier than the Sparrow-hawk. ”

“ There is no bird to equal the common crane in valour and a fine sense of honour; when your bālābān takes one, if there are a hundred others in the air, they will one and all drop from the sky like a stooping shāhīn, attack your hawk, and perhaps kill her: till they release their captured comrade they will not again take the air. ”

“ YOUNG PEREGRINE (INDIAN HOOD)
Though the passage shahin has more pace and a better wind [46] than the eyess, it is far less tractable, for it has preyed for itself in the jungle, and is filled with overweening pride of its powers of flight. Say you have, with infinite pains, succeeded in training one to large quarry, and have unhooded her at a common crane or a heron, and that suddenly, beneath her, she spies a wild duck, or a pigeon, or some other small quarry. What does she do? She “checks,” forsaking the large quarry for the small, and fills you with bitter disappointment. ”

“ It is the habit of all birds of prey, when within the distance of five or six spans of their quarry, to cease beating their wings, in order to get ready to seize it. Now if you cast off your hawk, breast to the wind, even though she cease to beat her wings for the last three or four feet of her flight, still by the help of the impetus gained by the cast, by your horse’s galloping, and by the beating of her own wings, she will reach and “bind” to the quarry and sportsmen will compliment you and commend your hawk. ”

“ The owl, in accordance with its previous training, flies straight for the lure, and is soon closely mobbed by all the birds of the neighbourhood. Do not leave your ambush; watch. If you are near the hills, perhaps a goshawk, qizil or t̤arlān, or else a saker falcon will come down and join the crowd. The owl, however, having no other object but to reach its goal, ignores the clamouring presence of its pursuers and continues on its straight course. The first bird to buffet the owl, on its alighting on the lure, is a fast prisoner in the net. ”

“ The more familiar you make your hawk, and the keener you make her on the lure, [326] the better. Now, if you have trained [327] your hawk in less than forty days, you have hurried her training, and “Hurry is of the Devil, but Deliberation is from God.” [328] Be not overhasty or you will spoil her. Such and such a falconer is sure to vaunt his skill, boasting that he has trained and flown his hawk in fifteen days. He has erred and blundered: he is not a lover of a hawk but a lover of the pot; [329] he is one who would not sacrifice one [82] partridge for a hundred goshawks. ”

“ Does he not know that if a short-winged hawk is flown on level ground, and wedded to large quarry such as ravens and duck and ruddy shieldrake and such-like, that it will in the hills with the advantage of gravity fly at the poor chukor all the better? [306] His object should not be money and rewards. He must be fond of hawks and hawking; he must know his business; he must be at heart a sportsman. ”

“ Many falconers fancy that if you fly your hawk at large quarry in the plains, thoroughly accustoming her to it, she will not thereafter take chukor and seesee. This is an error. Now a goshawk can only take duck and hubara and such-like quarry of the plains, at the first or second dash: if not taken at once such quarry will speedily outstrip the hawk. Therefore the hawk must, on level open ground, fly her fastest and strive her utmost at the beginning, and this habit soon becomes second nature. If a man wrestle with a famed wrestler, thereafter novices and ordinary people are to him as nothing. ”

“ Should an enemy loose a hawk and the hawk happen to come into thy possession, take it thyself and return it to him; for thy generous action will remove his enmity, and, should it not do so, men will extol thee and revile him: if thou do not act thus, then leave his hawk alone and make as though thou hadst not seen it, for often have I seen an evil man quarrel with his comrades about a single partridge, and the next day the lost hawk of a comrade having by chance fallen into his evil clutches he has killed it and buried it. ”

“ Sakers are passionately fond of the hubara as a quarry: they will never relinquish a chase as long as there is any chance of success: they will fly the hubara even when they are not very hungry. The hubara, when put up with a hawk just behind it, flies faster than is commonly supposed, especially in the Spring when it is fat and in high condition. A passage saker intended for this quarry should not, I think, weigh less than 2 lbs. 4 oz. and should have been brought into hard condition by being exercised twice daily at the lure; twenty-five stoops at each exercise are sufficient. ”

“ Should your shāhīn fail to kill, on no account must you in luring her back release the bagged plover as she comes towards you: do so only twice and she will never after be really good at the lure; she will contract a habit of “waiting on” in expectation of a live bird being thrown out for her, and will ignore the dead lure; then, if you have no live bird by you with which to lure her without delay, some eagle will be attracted to the spot, and she will to a certainty be lost. ”

“ A saker (unlike a peregrine) should not get a full feed of heron’s flesh, nor, generally speaking, of any water-bird’s flesh. Some sakers after a full meal of duck or heron will cast their gorge, sicken, and die. For some reason the flesh of the night-heron and of the purple heron is not injurious—at least I have never lost a saker by feeding one on the flesh of these birds. When entering a hawk to a difficult quarry, it is always advisable to kill at least one “train” under her, and to let her plume the feathers a little and eat some of the flesh: pigeons’ flesh may then be substituted. ”

“ The horse must indeed move, but you must so hold and keep your fist that your hawk does not open her wings; for she must, while the quarry has still a foot on the ground, quit your fist like a bullet; she will then take the quarry in the air before it has got away ten yards. On no account cast your hawk off with her back to the wind, for this is dangerous. First, by casting her off back to the wind, her loins will be strained; and leaving your fist uncollectedly, she will fail to reach the quarry, and your falconer friends will jeer at you and at your action. ”

“ It will squat on a perfectly open plain, the pursuing hawk alighting within five or six feet of it utterly puzzled as to what has become of its quarry. On the ground, an hubara does not at first seem afraid of a single saker or peregrine. ”

“ When first taken from the nest, they must be well and frequently fed, and be kept in as high condition as possible; for if at all neglected at this age, the immature feathers become “strangled” and fall out.
As soon as Autumn commences and the weather begins to cool, i.e., as soon as the birds of prey and other birds have commenced their in-migration from the hills and other summer-quarters, the nestling owl is taken up, fitted with jesses, [83] carried on the fist, sparely dieted, and “manned,” just like a young hawk in training. ”

“ For instance, if ten horses be trained for a race, [362] one will win, and whenever you race them the same one will win—unless, of course, some accident happen, or the horse is out of sorts. So, too, with greyhounds and other animals. In short, courage and powers of flight have nothing whatever to do with the falconer: for these the Grace of God is necessary.
Now, first you must train your hawk to come eagerly to the fist from any spot where your voice reaches her. Further, you must not encourage her to become so bold and familiar with dogs that she lay hands on them ”

“ Always approach a new, sitting hawk very, very slowly, and sit down to one side of her. Do not look at the hawk’s eyes, for a man’s eyes and face have a terrifying effect on hawks, especially when the gazer’s head is crowned with a Turcoman cap. Take meat in your hand and get her to jump from the perch to your fist, and let her eat one or two beakfuls: then carry her away. Falconer, listen: should you ever require to go to your hawk in the dark to take her on the fist, having no light with you, talk to yourself in a low tone the while ”

“ Hood the hawk on the lure and feed her. Now go and pull the owl out of its hiding place and put it in your falconer’s bag for the evening. In the evening—provided your hawk has not been given too much food in the morning—mount your horse and go out into the open plain, to a place where there are neither holes nor wells. Unhood the shāhīn; let her see the owl and then let the owl fly. When it has flown about twenty yards, cast off the hawk. She is certain to take it. Kill the owl and feed up the hawk. ”

“ ON BRANDING THE NOSTRILS BEFORE SETTING DOWN TO MOULT Before setting down long-winged hawks that have been flown at great quarry, it is necessary to brand their nostrils, and this is especially necessary in the case of gazelle- and crane-hawks; for the orifice of the nose of a long-winged hawk is a pit, and when the throat of a gazelle is cut and the hawk pulls at the spurting throat, her nostrils become filled with blood, which congeals and stops the passage of her breath; the blood cannot be completely removed by washing, for the nostril is like a well. ”

“ Unhood your hawk and walk up towards the owl. As soon as it is on the wing and your hawk shows an inclination to give chase, let her go. If she takes the owl, feed her up. If, however, the owl gets into a hole, quickly cast the lure to your hawk and let her take it: on no account let her settle on the ground, for settling on the ground is in a shāhīn an odious vice. ”

“ When you come across a lark, give the merlin to your assistant, and then move aside ten or fifteen paces. Now, alongside of the lark, lure the merlin to your fist. As soon as the lark spies the hawk, it will crouch on the ground, its eyes glued on the hawk. Now hand over the hawk to your assistant. Make him hold his hand high, and by lowering it and raising it cause the hawk to extend and flutter its wings, so that the attention of the lark may remain engrossed on it. Tell your man to go to the left of the lark and to stand about ten paces from it, making the hawk flutter all the time. ”

“ Do not, however, let her ever get too hungry; for in hunger she will pull out her feathers all the more. She is like one who has contracted the habit of always toying with his beard and moustache and pulling out the hairs: some men, too, I have seen who have a habit of ever plucking out the hair from their chests, and their armpits, and their pubes. Your hawk is like one of those and cannot be cured.
If, however, she has newly acquired the habit, it is a symptom of worms in the stomach. ”

“ In short, as soon as your hawk is so thoroughly entered to hubara that she will take six or seven in a day, you must go out and fly her at as many hubara as you can, but do not feed her: even though you fly her thirty times [511] with success, do not feed her. Go on flying her till she is utterly disgusted and will not attempt even to follow the quarry. As soon as you see this, bring up a gazelle fawn with meat tied on its head, as previously described in the chapter on training the passage saker. ”

“ The young hawk is light in body, and ignorant as well; but after the moult it becomes not only heavy, but cunning also, and will give up the moment it sees that the lark it is chasing is very strong on the wing. A “haggard” bālābān, [272] however, will, in the hands of a skilful falconer, ring up better than a young passage bālābān.
There are two varieties of merlin. In one variety the immature and mature plumage are, even after many moults, the same. In the other, the plumage of the back, after the first moult, becomes blue-grey, while the cere and legs become bright yellow like amber. ”

“ When giving a buzzard as a “train” the hind claw must be firmly bound back to the shank. Also for the first three or four [70] times meat must be tied to its back before it is shown to and released for the eyess. When the young hawk takes the “train,” she should be fed on freshly-killed pigeon or chicken flesh. It is not, however, necessary to tie back the hind claw of a kestril, as it is too weak to inflict an injury.
Third: the tail, especially that of the moulted and mature bird, is excellent for imping the broken tail-feathers of a sparrow-hawk. ”

“ As soon as the eagle takes to running like a chicken, one horseman must detach himself and intercept it in front. Now when that son of a dog [487] sees that it cannot fly, that its path is blocked in front, and that shouts and yells arise on all sides of it, it will have no recollection of the chark͟h that has fastened on to its back: from rage and bewilderment it will drive its talons into the ground. Now, my pupil, on no account must you treat this son of a dog like other quarry. ”

“ The young shikra was entered by being fed on a live vulture with seeled eyes, meat being tied on the back or head. The Egyptian Vulture is slow in taking flight, and when on the ground will let a man approach to within a few feet of it. The falconer, shikra in hand, has only to walk up to within a few feet of the unsuspecting vulture while it is resting on the ground, throw the shikra, and secure the quarry before it has even got so far as to spread its wings for flight. ”

“ If you are unable to feel the pulse of a hawk in the second joint of her wing, or if after discovering it you find that its beating is too [164] rapid to be counted, know that this is a symptom of hectic fever. Another symptom is that both by day and by night, she puts her head under her wing at unusual times. Another symptom is an inordinate appetite: she will gorge till the meat appears in her throat, and even then tear at meat and throw it away, there being no more room in her crop; but the more good food she eats, the thinner she gets. ”

“ Further, in the desert, the crops are scanty, and in consequence the houbara cannot always be marked down in their feeding grounds, but have to be laboriously beaten for by a long line of mounted men in open order; even a young saker will sit barefaced on the rider’s fist without bating, but keeping a sharp look out for the quarry, which, by running round the line or dodging through the intervals, may escape the keen sight of the beaters, but not the keener sight of the falcon. ”

“ The Shikra, held in the right hand protected by a pad or glove, the breast lying in the palm of the hand held upwards, and the tail, legs, and points of the wings coming out between the fore-finger and thumb, is thrown at the quarry while the quarry is still on the ground, or else the moment it rises. The Sparrow-hawk being a bird of swift flight is carried on the fist in the usual manner, a “halsband” being used to steady it. It must be a very poor and badly trained Sparrow-hawk that requires to be thrown from the hand. ”