Chapter XXVI The Shrike
Amongst the “black-eyed” birds of prey must be classed a small sparrow-like bird, grey and black in colouring. In the Kurdish language it is called bāzūrī, and in Persian ālā güzkina.300 In size it is somewhat larger than a sparrow: the wings are dark: the eyes have a dark line of antimony:301 the claws and beak are black, sharp, and powerful. When trained, it kills with ease sparrows and the small tisks302 found in the wheat and barley, in Spring. It also comes well to the lure from a distance.
There are two species. One grey and black with the antimony line under the eyes, and one yellowish. The former is decidedly the better.303
Footnotes
300 This is Turkish, not Persian. Persian Turks call the shrike ālā güzina also. In Shaw’s Turki Vocabulary (Appendix by Scully), Lanius Homeyeri, the Grey Shrike, is said to be called ālā g͟hurālāi, and Lanius arenarius, the Desert Shrike, boz̤ g͟hurālāi. The word ālā in Turki means “variegated” or “spotted.” In Lahore to Yarkand (page 182) the Brown Shrike, Lanius Cristatus, is said to be called urulia in Turki.
301 Surma kashīda; antimony is applied by means of a needle to an Eastern’s eye, underneath the lashes of the under lids, and to the outer corners of the eyes.
302 Tisk may be the Short-toed or Social Lark. In Shiraz, however, tisk is the name of a warbler like a white-throat, called in Kirman turnusk, and also barādar-i bulbul, “the nightingale’s brother.” Sisk and tirnisk are names that are probably both applied to the same warbler.
303 The Indian Grey Shrike (Lanius lahtora), called in the Derajat laṭorā and mamālā, used to be trained in Dera Ismail Khan to catch small birds. A smaller species called mamālī—probably the Rufous-backed Shrike, the harwājī of Kashmir (Lanius erythronotus)—does not appear to have been trained. Of the former Jerdon writes:—“Mr. Philipps states that he has seen it capture small birds; and that in the North-West, it is occasionally trained to do so. He also relates that it is sometimes picketed to the ground, closely attached to a starling, the neighbouring bushes, twigs, etc., being well smeared with bird-lime. All sorts of birds come to witness the supposed fight and to separate the combatants, and many are captured by the limed branches.”