17. Note on the Shwtiqar Falcon^ 



Bj LiEDT.-CoLONEL D. C. Phillott, Secretary, Board of Examiners. 



That the Shnnqar of old Persian manuscripts was a species 

 of Jerfalcon, there can, I tliiiik, be little Wouht. Jerdon 



13 n ' quoting 



Pallas, flays that the word is taken from tl»e Baschkir Tartar 

 name of the Jerfalcon, 



"We 



A footnote in Falconry in the British 

 hare been informed bv travellers that 



some 



Isles runs : 



few large white falcon 



'Caoght annually on their pjL8sin<r over the Caspian Sea, and that 

 ihey are hiorhjy prized by the falconers of Syria and Persia/* 



In the Shdhhn z-N avia ' it is stafpd that- the Shunqarin merely 

 the mountain variety of the Saker Fnlrori (itnlgu) which, by long 

 residence in the hills and snows, has increased in size, and that it 

 bears the same relation to the Saker that the sturdy hill-man does 

 to the inhabitant of the plains. 



The Emperor Jehangir in his chatty memoirs writes : 



'*0n 



:Sunday the 18th [in the year 1028 A.H., or J618 A.D.] we 



marched. At this time the Kinir of Persia ha«l sent by Pari Beg, 

 'the Mtr-Shikar^^ a Qr^e^shunq^r f-dco?!. Another, too, had been 



given to us by ^nn-i ^Alnm,^ The latter with his falcon died on 

 the way. The Koyal falcon too, through tlie carelessness of the 

 MtT'shik^r^ was mauled by a cat. Although ifc was bronglit alive 

 to Our Court, yet ifc lived no more tlian a week. How shall I 

 describe the beauty and colouration of this hawk? * It had very 

 handsome, black, luarkings on eacrh wing, ^ and on the back, and 

 ■on the sides. As it was something out of ihe common I orilered 

 Mansvry the painter, who is dignifie«l bv the title N/idir^ ^l-Hsr^ to 

 paint and preserve its likeness. I gave a thousand rupees to the 

 Mir-shikar and dismissed him." 



In Courteille^s ' Dfctlonaire Turk- Orient' ile,' we find : — *^lflJ 

 [shunq^rl, falcon, proprernenfc le gerfaut.'* D'-. Scnily, however, 

 in his Tarki vocabulaiy of birds stu(»s tl»at shunq^r is the n>ime 

 •of "Paico Hendersoni." and itnlgu ^L>il of its female. Now 

 amongst fhe Tuiks of Persia itnlgu or ait^lgu is the name of the 

 Saker Falcon (P. Clierrnir), the Ghnrah of India. Further in 



1 Shdh'baZ'Ndma *vide' Ethe's cat*logne of PersiMn M8?>. iti the India 

 Office Library, Vol, I., p. 15u8. The Aftiatic Society of Bengal possesses 



a MS. copy, 



2 Mir shikar h, in India, a courtesy title given to any common bird-catcher, 



sr, ;i8ai8t infc f ilconer, etc. In Persia the word signiiien a kind of h*»ad 



ganie-kppper or ' shikari* 



3 Kh^ft-i 'Al'trr was sent as nmhassHd<»r to Persia ; * vide * " TdrlM-i ^n- 

 •dustdn,' Vol VI., by Manlavi Muh tuimnd Zuka *I!ah. 



trappe 



f^f^^ vv^i- T**f - '^ — -- --•--—■- - ~ ---- -_,___ ^ _j- 



♦ Jdnwar, "animal/' in falconers' lin.,'ua^e means ' falcon or hawk.* 

 6 Bdl, as here ^* wing," but also ** flight-feather." 



