Chapter XIX The Saker Falcon (F. Cherrug)196
[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 tail201 are without spots. It is large in size and bold in nature, and good for either crane202 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.
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 name209 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 Mountain210 (?) 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.
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 sportsman216 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 Europe219 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 Nejd220 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 Sālimu S̤urayyā.
212 Mut̤laqu ’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.”