788 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV III. 



ancestors of the falcon on his fist to the 3rd and 4th generation, for 

 " baiting " when it should sit still and suddenly as the haggard 

 above returns to the charge, shouting endearing epithets by way of 

 encouragement : — " Shaibush, mera beta." They were all his " sons " 

 when showing good sport, in spite of the fact that I had not a tiercel 

 among them and they were all females, but his own sons are much more 

 precious to him than his daughters, so my falcons naturally took first 

 place and were called sons indiscriminately. 



At last the old houbara found it getting too hot for him up above, 

 the stoops getting more frequent and the distance too near between 

 him and his enemy, suddenly dropped to the ground, spread out 

 his tail, dropped his wings, the tips touching the ground and prepared 

 to show fight. In an instant the falcon was down, but the head of 

 the houbara, which had been held high, suddenly ducked and the 

 falcon swooped past, returned at once, missed again and sat on the 

 ground alongside : in an instant the houbara saw his chance and was 

 off and before the falcon realized what had happened, was two hundred 

 yards or more distant. Up got the game little falcon, hard upon his 

 tail, and then I saw, to my surprise, a second one follow. The old 

 falconer, seeing the haggard a bit done, slipped my other one, to ensure 

 a kill and " blood " the old haggard, which had certainly earned it. 

 The falcons had frequently been flown together at the " lure," so did 

 not go for each other's jesses as they would otherwise have done, but 

 both made for the fast vanishing houbara. 



The young bird, being fresh, soon took the lead and meant to waste 

 no time or energy about rising too high, so kept low and went full 

 speed ahead, closely followed by the haggard, who, however, kept 

 rising. The houbara, with neck well stretched, with leng full flaps 

 of his ample wings, was going a]l he knew, and I had grave doubts 

 as to whether I should even see the end of the chase. On we went 

 over that plain, passing here some cultivation, there a village with 

 all the inmates thinking the sahib had gone " dotty," not seeing 

 the object of my wild career, and the falcons steadily gaining. The 

 houbara, seeing this, tries once more his old tactics which had been 

 so successful before, and goes to ground, Down comes the young 

 hawk who leads, gets a claw full of feathers and sits on the ground, 

 and the houbara is off again, but this time there is a second falcon 



