A Morning with the Mehtar' s Falcons 135 



The surprised birds' anger at such treatment 

 was, as we arrived, being shouted out from rock 

 to rock and spur to spur, their shrill gamey call 

 echoing back from the cliffs on the opposite side 

 of the river. The beaters were out of sight, but 

 the signal to begin was passed on. The owners 

 took their hawks from the falconers, and all 

 stood ready. 



Almost as the first distant shouting of the 

 beaters reached us, a yell of " Hai! hai!" from 

 the stops above us, and garments wildly waved in 

 the air, signalled a single chakor. A stiff wind was 

 blowing down the valley, and he passed out of 

 gunshot below us at a terrific pace. As he went 

 by, the Mehtar balanced and swung forward the 

 goshawk on his fist, and the bird, with two strokes 

 of her powerful wings, was launched in pursuit. 

 As she got under way the Chitralis raised a pro- 

 longed crescendo shout, and the excitement was so 

 infectious that we could barely refrain from cheer- 

 ing her on ourselves. We leant over the wall to 

 watch the result, and were in time to see the 

 flying chakor a brown ball two hundred yards 

 away, but a bigger brown mass was rapidly closing 

 on it, and the two came to earth together. The 

 falconer whose hawk it was plunged down the 

 hill to retrieve the quarry and take up the hawk. 

 The Mehtar immediately turned and took a fresh 



