CHAPTER XIX

THE SAKER[196] FALCON (_F. Cherrug_)

[The author now mentions fourteen races and varieties of _bālābān_,[197] each of which he distinguishes by some special epithet.

_Kabīdī_ (?).—The first race or variety described is apparently named _kabīdī_:[199]]—It has a white head, without any cheek-stripe or dark mark under the eyes.[200] With this exception the colouration is dark: the feathers of both the body and the tail[201] are without spots. It is large in size and bold in nature, and good for either crane[202] or gazelle, but, alas, it is scarce. In the whole of my experience I have met with only one.

_Bālābān-i Fārsī._—Next is the _Bālābān-i Fārsī_, or “Saker of Fārs,” which is subdivided into the red and the white varieties. Neither has cheek stripes. The back, from the neck to the oil-bottle,[203] is covered with spots and markings, and the redder these are in tint, the better the bird. The flight-feathers,[204] seven in each wing, are also covered with spots. The feet are a very light slate-colour. The darker and smaller the beak, tongue, and nails, the better. The feet are lean, the tarsi short, the thighs stout, the chest and back broad, the wings fine and pointed, the eyes sunken, the eyebrows prominent; the neck is long, the forehead broad, the “waist” small. If the hawk has all these points, it is incomparable.

[Illustration: IX

YOUNG PASSAGE SAKER (DARK VARIETY)]

_Bālābān-i Aḥmar-i Shām._—Next is the _Bālābān-i aḥmar-i Shām_ or the “Red Syrian Saker,” of which there are two varieties, the red and the black. In a good bird of this race, the two centre tail-feathers, called by the Arabs _ʿamūd_ or “props,” and by the Turks _qāpāq_,[205] as well as the two outer tail-feathers, one on each side,[206] should be without spot or marking.

_Bālābān-i Badrī._—The next race is called _badrī_.[207] It has a white head and no cheek stripe. The general colouration is reddish, and the back and breast are without markings. The two centre tail-feathers are sometimes with spots and sometimes without: if with spots the smaller and redder they are the better.

These four races or varieties are by the Arabs styled _ḥurr ṣāfī_.[208]

_Badū-pasand_ (?).—[A variety of the _Badrī_ has a name[209] that cannot be deciphered with certainty.] This is a variety of the _Badrī_, but the whole of the tail is white without the admixture of any other colouring. It is uncommon, and though it belongs to the class of _ḥurr_,[208] it is poor-spirited and not prized.

_Jibālī._—The next race is the Mountain[210] (?) Saker. It has a little black only, under the eye. It has on the back, two, four, or six white spots, called by the Arabs Pleiades (_Thurayyā_). The “prop” feathers have sometimes spots and sometimes none. In any case it is not styled by the Arabs _ḥurr ṣāfī_, for the _ḥurr ṣāfī_ must not only be without cheek stripes, but must also have certain other points.

The first four described are, however, all included in the _ḥurr ṣāfī_. According to the idiom of Arab falconers, the _ḥurr ṣāfī_ must have the back “free from Pleiades,”[211] the “prop” feathers “clear of marks,”[212] and the two outside feathers (one on each side) “void of stain.”[213] Also it must have no cheek stripe, nor black under the eyes. Should the hawk not have these points, they class it as _jibālī_ and not as _ḥurr ṣāfī_.

[Illustration: X

YOUNG PASSAGE SAKER (DARK VARIETY)]

_Bālābān-i Lafīf._—Next is the _bālābān-i lafīf_,[214] and of this there are three varieties, the yellowish, the dark, and the light. All three have cheek-stripes or dark feathers under the eyes. As in the case of the eyess _chark͟h_, if this race is taken from the nest it is called in Turki _aitālgī_, in Arabic _wacharī_,[215] and in Persian _chark͟h_. Should it have left the nest and be caught in a net, it is called (in Persian) _bālābān-i lafīf_.

Now as for those four races described above as _ḥurr ṣāfī_, I have in my many travels and constant inquiries never met with any hawk-catcher or sportsman[216] who has taken a _ḥurr ṣāfī_ from the nest. No one even knows in what country, birds of this race breed. All I know for certain is, that in the beginning of Autumn they come to us from across the sea, from the direction of Muscat and Baḥrayn.[217] God knows where they breed and whence they travel. Those that I have seen in Persia, Turkey,[218] and Europe[219] have all been _lafīf_ and have all had cheek stripes.

The _lafīf_ is to the _ḥurr ṣāfī_ what the _t̤arlān_ is to the _qizil_, or what the Nejd[220] horse is to the Turkoman pony.[221] Moult after moult the _ḥurr ṣāfī_ becomes better, whereas the _lafīf_ flies well for not more than three seasons: after that it becomes cunning.[222] I have at present two _bālābān_ of the _ḥurr ṣāfī_ race, one of sixteen and one of seventeen moults; one is “Persian” and the other “Red Syrian.”[223] Both are still excellent at common crane.[224] Birds of this race, while life lasts, year by year improve, for their nature is noble.

THE BĀLĀBĀN-I LAFĪF OF BAGHDAD.—A variety of the _Lafīf_ that I have met with nowhere except in Baghdad, is called by Baghdad falconers _Wacharī_.[225] In general colouring, it is dark with a tinge of red on the head. The flight-feathers are dark in colour and long, extending beyond the tail. It has small feet and the female is about the same size as the tiercel of the eyess _chark͟h_.[226] It is very swift, nearly as swift as the _shāhīn_. It takes the small piebald crow,[227] black partridge,[228] and stone-plover, with ease. Some few I have seen that would take houbara.

It has a great outward resemblance to the Hobby which is found round Teheran.

FOOTNOTES:

[196] _Ṣaqar_ (sometimes pronounced _ṣagar_ or _ṣag͟har_) is one of the names by which this falcon (_F. Sacer_ of Jerdon and _F. cherrug_ of Blanford) is known to the Arabs. Possibly the word _ṣaqar_ is by Arabs applied to other falcons also.

[197] Considerable confusion exists with regard to the various names of this falcon. By Indians this species is called _charg͟h_, by Afghans _chark͟h_. By Persians the passage falcon is styled _bālābān_ and the eyess _chark͟h_, while by the Turks of Persia the passage falcon and the eyess are often both called _aitālgī_. The Author, however, himself a Turk, states that the nestling of a particular variety is by Turkish falconers distinguished by the name _aitālgī_. In _Lahore to Yarkand_, a report on some of the scientific results of the expedition to Yarkand in 1870, there is a coloured figure of an old and not uncommon variety of the Saker, to which the scientific name of _Falco Hendersoni_ is appended; and it is stated that Mr. Hume considered this falcon to be the _Shunqār_ of Eastern falconers. Apparently following up this idea, Scully, in his vocabulary of the Turki names of birds, gives as the equivalent of the Turki _aitalgū_, “the female of the ‘_shunqār_,’ _Falco Hendersoni_.” There is, however, evidence to show that, in ancient times, _Shunqār_ was a name given by Indian falconers to a species of Jerfalcon, _vide_ page 36, note 151. Modern Indian falconers, proverbial for inaccuracy, have a habit of calling any Saker (_charg͟h_) that is unusual in size and markings a “_shunqār_,” and so, by exciting emulation, obtain a fictitious price from some credulous native gentleman. Though seemingly only one species of _charg͟h_ visits the Panjab, individuals so vary in size, shape, markings, and colouration, that it is at first sight difficult to believe that they are of the same species. Amongst young birds some are whole-coloured, others have some small white specks on the back, while others again have white heads with spotted tails. In some varieties the tail spots are barely visible; in others they are so white and numerous that the spread tail appears to be nearly all white. Peculiarities may disappear to a great extent in the first moult. The colouring of the “intermewed”[198] falcon depends, to a great extent, on feeding and exposure. “Haggards” vary, nearly, if not quite, as much as the immature hawks. A rare variety is said, by Panjabī falconers and others, to have the tarsus feathered “like certain breeds of pigeons.” In the Derajat this variety is distinguished by the term _pā-moz_ or “booted,” while in the Pindi Gheb district it is considered a distinct species and called _Sang-sang_. The evidence of the existence of this peculiar variety (which is also supposed to be above the average in size) is detailed and corroborative. Arab falconers of _Baṣrah_ have described this variety to the translator, and stated that it is known to them by the name of _Shung͟hār_. By the name _Sang-sang_ some species of falcon (probably a _chark͟h_) is known to the Afghans. The Charg͟h breeds in Afghanistan, Persia, and elsewhere, but not in India. Apparently more than one race visits India. In the Panjab it is flown only at large quarry—kite, hare, houbara, and occasionally at black ibis and common heron. In Baghdad it is said to be flown at geese. Corballis, in _Forty-five Years of Sport_, says, “This falcon is good at smaller game, such as grouse, partridges, etc.” Apparently he is speaking of Syria. The Saker is too slow for sand-grouse in ordinary circumstances.

[198] “‘Intermewed.’ A hawk that has been moulted in confinement.”—_Lascelles._

[199] This word is perhaps a copyist’s error.

[200] _Madmaʿ_ Ar. sing. “The place where the tears collect in the sides of the eye”; the pl. _madāmiʿ_ comprises the inner and outer angles of the eyes, but is especially applied to the inner. _Vide_ note 49, page 8.

[201] In India a hawk with a tail without marks is called _lagaṛ-dum_, or “tailed like the Lagar Falcon.”

[202] In Dresser’s _Birds of Europe_ it is stated that Jerdon once took a _Sārus_ crane (_Grus Antigone_) with a Saker.

[203] _Mudhun_ A. and _rūg͟han-dān_ P.

[204] _Shāh-par_, “flight-feather.”

[205] _Qāpāq_; derivation unknown.

[206] These two feathers are apparently called by the Arabs _rudāfạ_. This word is the plural of _radīf_ which literally signifies “to ride pillion.” In m. c. it is the name given by Persians and Turks to the “Army Reserve.” _Vide_ also page 73, note 305.

[207] Possibly from _badr_, “the full moon.”

[208] _Ḥurr_ Ar. “free-born”; hence “noble.” The Saker and Goshawk are styled _ḥurr_, and also the young of certain animals. _Ṣāfī_, “pure, unmixed, etc.”

[209] Apparently _Badū-pasand_, “liked by the Bedouins.”

[210] _Jibālī_, adj. from _jibāl_ “mountains,” plural of _jabal_.

[211] _Sālim^u S̤urayyā._

[212] _Mut̤laq^u ’l-ʿamūd._

[213] _Māṣiḥ rudāfạ._

[214] _Lafīf_: meaning of _lafīf_ obscure.

[215] There is no letter _ch_ in Arabic. In ʿIrāq, however, _k_ is sometimes pronounced _ch_. _Wakr_ (_wachr_) in Arabic is a nest, so “_wachrī_” _might_ signify “nestling.” An Arab gentleman in _Baṣrah_ (a falconer) told me that the white Saker with drops on the back is called _Ḥurr Ṣāfī_; the same if of a reddish tinge _Ḥurr Shāmī_; and that these races are supposed to come from “Persia” and “Syria.” The dark Saker with drops on the back is, he said, called _Wacharī Jarūdī_, and without drops _Wacharī_. The best for gazelle, he stated, was the “Persian” and “Syrian.” The Baghdad Sakers are preferred to those of Baṣrah. Sakers are caught in Bushire and taken for sale to Baṣrah, where they fetch as much as seventy rupees. In the Panjab their price varies from three to ten rupees, according to locality and season.

[216] _Shikārchī_, a comprehensive term; “sportsman, fisherman, bird-catcher, etc., etc.”

[217] The Sheikh of _Baḥrayn_ keeps many sakers and peregrines which are flown at houbara on the opposite Persian Coast. The translator once travelled with the Sheikh’s two sons in a B. I. boat: they had fifty or sixty falconers and as many peregrines and sakers, all, with one exception, young and newly trained.

[218] By Turkey, the Author probably means Asia Minor.

[219] Probably Turkey in Europe.

[220] The best bred Arab horses are from Nejd.

[221] _Yābū_, a pony of a coarse breed.

[222] _Duzd_, _lit._ “a thief.”