eSO JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII. 



set to work Avith a very fine young Laggar, and two Turumtis. In the meantime 

 I read up books and watched the old falconer. The joy of first seeing the Laggar 

 jump to the hand and thence to the lure and finally to see her mount and " wait 

 on " and stoop, time and again, as the lure was thrown out ! Then came the 

 time when she followed an old crow into the midst of a lot of grazing cattle after 

 quite a long chase and the way the crow took up a strategic position on the back 

 of a buffalo, and dodged under the animal as the falcon swooped down, from 

 above, and finally killed it in the open. It was all very exciting and I was fairly 

 " bitten " after my first real experience, and saw myself in imagination galloping 

 madly over the country in the wake of a cast of well trained Peregrines one day, 

 and watching a Saker rising rapidly behind a kite the next, and so on " ad lib ! " 



However, in spite of the lack of means to do the thing right royally, my antici- 

 pations, or rather my imagination did not fall far short of realization, and old 

 Ealinda proved a gem and no mean exponent of the art of training falcons. 

 In spite of a very wizened body and a pair of stumps to do duty for legs, to say 

 nothing of grey hairs and beard, the old chap was marvellous. Whether I 

 galloped one mile or ten behind a falcon and her quarry, he invariably arrived 

 on the scene on his own flat feet in a most amazing way by the time the falcon 

 had been fed, simply bubbling over with endearing epithets if the quarry had 

 been accounted for. 



I must apologise for this digression and merely brought it in to show that 

 even the keeping of half a dozen hawks need not necessarily be an expensive 

 item. I do not advise it, as a general thing and if only one falconer is available, 

 a couple of casts of good falcons, well trained and systematically hunted, will 

 ensure better sport than half a dozen, which cannot possibly receive proper care 

 and attention, and one cannot count on picking up a " Ealinda " every day. 



The catching and training of falcons is, as I have already said, in itself ex- 

 tremely fascinating and I will start by describing some of the methods adopted 

 by falconers in this country, for catching birds. 



The first and foremost is the " doguzza," which, as its name implies, is a 

 '' two yard " net. This is suspended between two sticks and stands up vertically 

 between the bird it is intended to catch and the bait, like a miniature tennis net, 

 and as the hawk makes for the bait it dashes through the net pulling it down over 

 it. The net is fixed to two rings which run on a string from top to bottom of 

 the sticks, and even if the sticks do not fall, the hawk dashing into the net, pulls 

 the rings upwards and forms a half closed bag of the net, in the centre of which 

 it struggles in vain. The " doguzza " is used chiefly for hawks, as they are usually 

 found among trees among which a good background can be found for the vertical 

 net. For falcons it is not nearly so successful, as a falcon, fljang low in the 

 open, sees the net against the sky line and swerves. 



2. The next in importance is the " padam," which is made up of some 15 to 

 25 gut nooses, attached to httle wooden pegs, some .3 inches long. 



The end of the peg is dug into the ground (and is sharp pointed for the purpose) 

 and the gut noose stands out in a hoop some 8 inches in diameter. These are 

 placed round in a circle just touching each other and the bait is placed in the 

 centre, A falcon swooping down to get at the bait, gets a leg caught in one of 

 the nooses. This is almost infallible for falcons, and in fact m.ost Birds of Prey, 

 but does not always work with a slow flying and cautious kite or eagle. These 

 birds will probably circle over once or twice and instead of swooping at an angle, 

 ■will come down vertically from above, pick up the bait and rise high enough to 

 get over the nooses. 



3, The next in importance is probably a ball of nooses tied to the feet of a 

 decoy falcon, A little cloth ball, smaller than a tennis ball, with tapes attached, 

 will do very well. Into this ball are firmly sewn a collection of feathers of any 

 small bird, such as a mynah for instance, and in among the feathers are also 

 firmly fixed a number of horse hair nooses. The ball is then attached to the 



