42 Jouninl of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [January, 1907-^ 



when the children found another "bird and cried, " Hoo hoo, ha 

 ha," ^ they returned and resumed their * waiting on\ My falcon- 

 ers told me that this kind of natural hawking was a common 

 pastime of village children in the Panjab. 



On another occasion, in the desert near Dtra Ghazi Khan, I 

 came across a small island of low tamarisk trees, on which some 

 crows and a pair of wild I a gars were resting. My orderly and 

 I galloped in and out of the trees to try and keep the crow?^ 

 on the wing, while the lagars, * waiting on' low down, stooped 

 at the crows as they wei-e flushed. The crows could not be- 

 inductd to leave their cover, though the hawks did not stoop 

 as though in earnest. Although tiained layars take crows, I 

 have never seen wild ones do so. An eyas Ingar I had 'flying 

 at hack '^ used, in play, to stoop at roosting crows, but when it was 

 seated on a tree-top the crows used to stoop at it. 



That a pair of lacars so frequently haunts the vicinity of a 

 village may be due to the assistance the birds derive from cattle 

 and children, who, as they move about, distui^b and flush the 



prey.^ 



Amongst falconers the lagar occupies an inferior position, 



but amongst hawk-catchers or ' harakis ^ it is highly prized, for 

 it makes, as is detailed below, a better harak^ than any other 

 kind of hawk.^ 



ration 



gre 



passes, rivers, and coast-lines, is a fact that has long been known 

 to, and made use of, by Indian hawk-catchers; as also the fact 

 that hawks are jealous birds and love robbing their kind. So, 

 when the hawk-catching season approaches, the hnraku take their 

 accustomed posts ; for saker-catching in certain open plains, e&pe- 



^ I«1enri«*al or nearly so, with the old European hfiwking cry. 



2 * Flying at hack' is keeping nesclinga in a state of liberty to enable 

 them to develop their flight- mnscles. 



3 When mHnoeuvrntc with my squadron in the long grass in the bed of 

 the river at Dern Ghazi Khm, we wern Hlway« closely followed by two or 

 three harriers that CH;.sed tiie bla<'k partridges a>» they wer« flushed. 



Gilbert White writf*s : *' Horsemen on wide downs are often closely at- 

 ten<ied by a little party of sw^llowa for miles tog»^ther, whit-h jil ly before and 

 behind them, BW^^eping ar'>atid and colle*'ting all the skulking insects that are 

 roused by tlie trampling of the hoi sea' fet-t." 



Similuly I once had as many as five or six excellent fliirhts after a lark 

 with a wild Mei lin, the lurk, after ringing up, dropping and hiding nnder a clod. 

 The M*^rlin, nnsaccesKf al, at last got tired ont. 



* Bdrakl K Hindns.) " one that flies a hdralc " -' harak urava ** to fly Idrahs, 

 to catch i^awks by means of a bdrak,'' Next to the ia^ror, the best baraik 

 for a chur^ i« a kite. For a Merlin, a Keslril can be used." A bird-catcher 

 tella me that about two inches should be cutoff the end of the Kesrril's 

 tail. On one occasion a Peregrine tiercel was taktn W a hdrak of a ttirmnf^ 

 or " red-headed meilin." 



^ Some hawk-catrhers aSirm that a tarinaikj/iagar (or ' haggard tiercel' 

 of F jugger} is better than the bird in the immature plnmnge, and that wild 

 hawks Will som^^times come cl(?8e to a y^nng lagnr a-d then sheer ofE with- 



perhap 



with 



